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Crisis management seminar held for K-1 employees
By Zach Arnold | November 28, 2007
By Zach Arnold
A couple of days ago in a site news update, we alluded to the fact that K-1 was going to read the riot act to both fighters and company staff regarding personal conduct both in and out of the workplace. Two recent incidents involving Masaaki Miyamoto (going to jail for marijuana) and Hiromi Amada (assault charges) spurred K-1 into action mode.
Publicly, the company said that they are sending a clear message to their employees — violence outside of the ring is not acceptable. A seminar was held today, featuring an estimated 60 participants including Musashi, Masakatsu Funaki, Hideo Tokoro, and Yoshihiro Sato. Similar to police seminars given to sumo fighters recently, the fighters were lectured on how to evade and stay away from the boryokudan (yakuza). A former member of Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department’s crime syndicate unit spent approximately two hours addressing the fighters.
The irony of this should not be lost on anyone given both the distant and recent history of the Japanese fight scene.
K-1’s public stance today is that they want to combat an ‘anti-social image’ that the public may have about their fighters, with hopes of improving the personal behavior of company employees. The company is considering holding seminars of a similar nature on a regular basis.
Topics: HERO's, Japan, K-1, MMA, Media, Zach Arnold | 5 Comments » | Permalink | Trackback | Share This
I can imagine the hundreds of gangsters who were probably present could barely stifle their sniggers.
“sniggers”
racist, imo
snickering?
Slang for snickering.
Reminds me of the Wellness Policy for some reason.
I agree with doing this.
Why risk tarnishing the companies reputation and losing their television deal. Should have anticipated this beforehand, but its good they’re dealing with it now.