Wednesday February 15, 2012

JAPAN NEWS AND DISCUSSION

With the latest allegations of match-fixing, what future do you see for sumo?

Have Your Say Sep. 30, 2008 - 12:59AM JST ( 26 )

Order by Time Order by Popularity

26 Comments

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ca1ic0catSep. 30, 2008 - 02:31AM JST

The future should be about the same as baseball or basketball in the US after game rigging was discovered: a few heads will roll, the sport will introduce "measures" to clean up and life will go on.

Or they will just join the US professional wrestling tour, start bashing fans with chairs, etc. and life will go on.

Oops, did I just say professional wrestling is staged? Silly me!
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outofmydepthSep. 30, 2008 - 06:11AM JST

the future of sumo is in dire straits. they should come clean about everything and get rid of some of their arcane rules. then, maybe we can believe in them.
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some14someSep. 30, 2008 - 07:01AM JST

Sumo will have bright future because of Aso's slogan "strong and bright nation." All Sumo Kyokai has to do is to keep low profile, impose partial censorship, offer discount tickets and replay old Yokozunas heroic bouts (advertisement through NHK) !
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romulus3Sep. 30, 2008 - 07:36AM JST

Japanese people already have their head firmly planted in the sand. "what match fixing allegations? Oh, you mean the gaijin pot head and the other gaijins? don't worry, they have been fired. Now sumo is safe again".
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GWSep. 30, 2008 - 08:09AM JST

all this makes me wonder what was real & what wasnt back in the good ole days of Akebono Takanohana Musashimaru Wakanohana & Konishiki, was it real, was it fixed, oh the drama
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SargeSep. 30, 2008 - 11:37AM JST

Notginger - Har!
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gogogoSep. 30, 2008 - 11:59AM JST

They should open the sport up to other countries, you can't call it a sport if only the Japanese can play it.
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ApsaraSep. 30, 2008 - 12:46PM JST

It's not only the Japanese playing it, the two yokozuna are both Mongolians and there are high-ranked wrestlers from Bulgaria, Estonia, Georgia, Russia and Korea as well as many other Mongolians currently wrestling- hadn't you noticed?
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timorborderSep. 30, 2008 - 01:41PM JST

Match fixing in sumo goes back many years. I can think of two former brothers in Sumo (not Taka and Waka) who had the deal with the stench of allegations regarding match fixing back in the late '80s and early '90s.
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FinkySep. 30, 2008 - 03:17PM JST

I can picture Jello wrestling! AWESOME!

Oh, but not the sumo wrestles we have today.

The new sumo will be scantily clad or naked models in the Jello ring of doom!
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chibamanSep. 30, 2008 - 03:25PM JST

Match fixing in sumo goes back to pretty much when it started. The word yaocho was born from sumo. As in, they had to come up with a word to describe the intentional losing of bouts for other benefits.

Now to address the question at hand, I don't see yaocho disappearing from sumo but I reckon there will be less of it, especially in the next year or two until everyone has forgotten about it again, and definitely in bouts involving foreigners who have few qualms with exposing the establishment then taking a plane back home.

I also think these latest claims will hurt sumo, with some people not bothering anymore. And by some people, I mean me.
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outofmydepthSep. 30, 2008 - 03:36PM JST

i don`t bother anymore. used to until they forbade akebono to marry his sweetheart. that was going too far. he did anyway. really lost interest after that.
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memyselfISep. 30, 2008 - 03:50PM JST

Business as usual, when the Russian guy visa expires or he can't stay anymore because of his appeals failed. Back to business. The same rigging people will be there. and the same council will be there. Nothing will change. Delay the case for 5 years, and the Russian's money will run out. He will go home angry but he will be a free man. He's lucky !!!!
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neverknow2Sep. 30, 2008 - 05:39PM JST

The future of sumo will be the same as its past, no-one cares!
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BurakuminDesSep. 30, 2008 - 09:21PM JST

Sumo needs an entrepreneur (like Kerry Packer did with cricket 30 years ago - any Aussies on here?) to come in, offer rival contracts to buy the Sumo players, and revolutionise the sport, or else its dead within 5 years. It needs to become more open and transparent, and to do away with all the silly antiquated rules (such as those preventing Sumo players driving a car, making them employees of "stables" who cannot compete against each other, disallowing players from marrying certain people and so on). It needs to get young people showing some interest, and to do that I reckon a good start would be to jazz it up a bit with entertainment like all the popular sports in Japan (soccer, baseball). Mascots, music and cheergirls would be a good start. Above all, it needs to do away with the heirarchical "stable" system, which seems to be ridiculously out-dated and closed to the public. If Sumo doesnt move with the times, I fear it will be even smaller than the tiny sport it has become today.
Above all, Sumo needs some Australian wrestlers.
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ogtobOct. 01, 2008 - 01:44PM JST

Let's see steroid testing. Look at Takanohana now. The acne pitted face, liver problems, and the fact that he is like half the size he use to be are all circumstantial evidence of heavy steroid use.
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OsakadazOct. 01, 2008 - 02:56PM JST

bellydancing 教室。
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dennis0bauerOct. 01, 2008 - 03:09PM JST

What change? oh yeah put the fist down at the tachai, implemented a few days before the basho, so someone will say sorry, and nothing will change
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BeelzebubOct. 01, 2008 - 06:26PM JST

They should abolish the rank of yokozuna. The expectations are too high, for one thing. In Edo times, it was an honorary rank, like 5-star general in the army, that was only accorded upon a wrestler's retirement.

I'm not happy with Shinto proscriptions against women entering the ring (like the governo of Osaka prefecture, to present an award) because they're "impure." Some of the other changes people have proposed are so radical, sumo wouldn't be sumo any more if they were adopted.
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Blue_TigerOct. 01, 2008 - 09:07PM JST

Sumo is basically in hot water, and could be done.
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browny1Oct. 01, 2008 - 10:58PM JST

Sumo has certainly lost it's cred. The faithful will only beieve what they already believe but those who scratch a little below the pomp will surely find many questionable aspects.

My first intro to sumo 15 yrs ago mesmorized me. I went to a regional basho - with many of the national champions - and saw man-mountains pounding and flattening one another. I was hooked. Followed Takanohana. He was just so much above the others in skill, power, temperament. Then I began hearing/reading the stories of steroid abuse and match rigging and frankly I dismissed them. This IS real I thought. My mind was suddenly freed of such one day, when watching the final bout between Takanohana and his bros Wakanohana. The winner would win the basho and more importantly Waka would probably become a Yokozuna.

The feeble manner in which Taka threw the bout was mind-boggling. Replay after replay showed the vastly superior Taka just taking a pathetic fall and everyone going crazy over the new super hero. What a farce.

I couldn't be bothered for years after that until a couple of years ago when I Started watching again and became mildly interested with Asa & co. But with all the crap surrounding it now, the sooner it sinks into it's own quagmire the better. At least in other traditional entertainment like kabuki or noh we know it's not real.
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oraOct. 02, 2008 - 01:55AM JST

Sumo will be fine.