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Could the Nagoya Sumo tournament get derailed for good?
By Zach Arnold | June 26, 2010
As noted before on the site, Sumo is getting hit repeatedly with scandal after scandal and a lot of it has to deal with the yakuza. Amidst reports that NHK is considering not airing Sumo events on television, there’s now discussion that next month’s tournament may not happen.
Japan Sumo Association not to release rankings for Nagoya tournament on Monday
Gambling, of course, has been a major problem for those in the Sumo world and you’d see it all the time when the sumo wrestlers crossed over into pro-wrestling. They would end up with massive gambling debts (think: Tadao Yasuda) and big trouble would come.
A person arrested on suspicion of extortion of a Sumo wrestler claims that he got paid because it was reward money for being a middleman to bookmakers. Adding another twist to this story — Yomiuri reports that the Sumo wrestler’s hairdresser gave the middleman the money.
Former yakuza member gives Mainich inside look at baseball gambling rocking sumo world
The problem for police is that they don’t have the same kind of laws on the books like in the States to go after the gangs. The problem impacting Sumo is the same one in other sectors of the Japanese fight game. However, everything is on the line now because sponsor support has completely collapsed.
The only thing that could top this story off would be a cameo appearance by Rod Blagojevich.
On a side note, this scandal flared up in part due to a weekly magazine report. You just can’t trust those weekly magazines now, can you? Ask Mr. Sakakibara about that.
Topics: Japan, Media, Zach Arnold | 1 Comment » | Permalink | Trackback |
Good lord! What’s next? Judo? Kendo? Beach volleyball? Is every Japanese athlete (including pro wrestlers) allergic to ethics or something?