Sumo wrestling is the official sport of Japan, enjoying special status and support by the Japanese government. It’s more than a sport, really, since it’s closely tied to Shinto religious ceremonies going back centuries, and legendary figures from Japan’s history like Toyotomi Hideyoshi and Oda Nobunaga were sumo aficionados. Over the past few years the sport has really fallen from grace due to a series of scandals that have rocked the Japan Sumo Association and its fans and harmed its image with fans. These have included wrestlers who were caught with marijuana and ejected from the sport, officials who were found to have ties with yakuza criminals, a high-profile bar fight in which Mongolian wrestler Asashoryu used his mighty strength against another patron, plus a sad incident in which a young wrestler died as a result of hazing by older wrestlers. Another big problem is 八百長 yaoyacho, the organized fixing of matches between wrestlers since, once one wins 50% of matches in a tournament, he has the same chance of promotion whether he wins 90%, and thus can agree to lose some bouts to his friends to help their scores. Brought to light by the authors of the book Freakanomics, who used statistics to prove the problem existed, it’s being dealt with strictly by officials as they attempt to rebuild trust with fans. Fun fact: the way to say arm wrestling in Japanese is 腕相撲 ude-zumou, literally “arm sumo wrestling.”
Fun fact: arm wrestling is “arm sumo” in Japanese.
