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Kamipro writer: UFC can’t do business their own way in other countries
By Zach Arnold | October 21, 2008
There’s a reason why WWE will never have major, long-term success in Japan. UFC is about to find this out for themselves.
It’s not just the heavy entrenchment of the yakuza into the Japanese business world. It’s also the inherent racism that exists on a much deeper level inside the fight business there as opposed to the Japanese culture and population in general. In the Japanese fight business, they are paranoid about foreign bosses and having foreigners as the front men for their respective fight companies. Not as warm and fuzzy as the nationalistic yakuza-types, I suppose.
“It is natural that UFC cannot succeed in a foreign country.”
That’s foolish talk coming from the Kamipro editor, who’s lucky that he has a job still in the fight business given how bad things are in Japan right now. Then again, Kamipro used to be one of the friendliest outlets for PRIDE communications when Noboru Yamaguchi was running things, and of course Yamaguchi is now the front man for Hustle… a Nobuyuki Sakakibara-created project during the DSE & PRIDE era of business in Japan.
It is foolish, however, for UFC management to actually trust anyone in the Japanese fight media (outside of photographers) and ask them to do any favors for you. Why? Ego. I speak from personal experience (on the pro-wrestling side of the equation) when talking about how when a foreigner asks someone in the Japanese fight media for a favor or gives that media person a story tip, how there is a great tendency for that same media person to publicly turn around and proclaim how special they are, how the foreigner approached them, etc. It’s dumb, but that’s what the political climate is with fight media-types in Japan. Whenever a foreigner approaches a Japanese media writer or non-photographer type, what always happens is that the foreigner ends up being the story. It’s used as a device in two ways: a) to proclaim how special they are and/or b) to use as ‘cover’ so that if the writer does some actual reporting, the heat goes on the foreigner and not the writer.
As for the writer at Kamipro, I laugh at his complaint about how UFC wants to do business on their own terms (the term he used was ‘egoist rule’). Of course they do. The alternative? Dealing with the yakuza’s terms. There is no rule of law when the mafia does business in Japan, as it’s the wild west. UFC found that out the hard way when trying to resurrect PRIDE in Japan.
It’s a weird dichotomy with the Japanese fight media — they are always afraid of the yakuza, yet don’t mind getting rewarded (access, money, etc.) at the same time. Somehow, I wouldn’t want to live a life in the fight business where I was constantly threatened but also paid off by the mafia at the same time.
Suddenly the ‘evil foreigner’ gains power in the fight business and it’s this frenzy to ’stop the foreign invasion’ in all circles of the Japanese fight industry. A question to ask to editors of media publications in the Japanese fight industry — if the yakuza is so great and ‘UFC rule’ is so bad for the business, then why is it that the ‘yakuza way’ of doing business killed off the industry in Japan in the first place? You can’t defend mafia-influence on this business any longer, and now you’re paying a big price for it.
Topics: Japan, MMA, Media, PRIDE, UFC, Zach Arnold | | Permalink | Trackback | Share This
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You put the dots on the paper but you didn’t connect them, Zach.
Hopefully if the UFC returns to Japan we’ll get a Matt Lindland/Yoji Anjo rematch.
I love Sociology, MMA, and business, so much appreciated post Zach!
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