Foreign sumo influx concerns Japan
TOKYO – Japan is slowly losing its grip on its national sport.
The country has not produced a grand champion in the ancient competition of sumo since 2003, and the prospects for the future aren’t promising, a trend that alarms purists.
While Japanese baseball limits the number of foreigners who can compete, no such restrictions exist in sumo. Some worry that Japanese wrestlers may gradually be forced out of the most prestigious and lucrative positions.
Grand champion Asashoryu won the Emperor’s Cup on Sunday, the sixth time in the last seven tournaments the Mongolian has captured sumo’s top prize.
“I think a lot of the younger Japanese wrestlers lack toughness,” Asashoryu said in a recent interview. “When I was growing up in Mongolia, conditions were harsh and that prepared me well for sumo.”
Inspired by the likes of Major League Baseball’s Ichiro Suzuki and soccer’s Hidetoshi Nakata, who plays for Italian team Fiorentina, many young Japanese athletes dream of making it on the world stage, rather than the closed world of sumo.
Others complain that a steady diet of computer games and junk food has left Japan’s youth ill-equipped for the realities of sumo’s rigid system, a 1,500-year-old sport bound by tradition and ritual.
Asashoryu thrives under such conditions. He produced a 15-0 record at the New Year Grand Sumo Tournament.
“I just hope to keep performing at this level so I can please my fans,” Asashoryu said. “This is the perfect way to start the year.”
But sumo’s hierarchy is clearly uncomfortable.
“Obviously, we’d like to have a Japanese grand champion,” Japan Sumo Association spokesman Uragoro Takasago said. “Everyone is trying their best and that’s all you can ask.”
In the New Year tournament, 11 of the 42 wrestlers competing in the elite makuuchi division – sumo’s version of the major leagues – were born in other countries.
The three Japanese who are closest to grand champion – ozekis Kaio, Chiyotaikai and Tochiazuma – have had numerous chances to reach the top but haven’t fulfilled the requirements for promotion.
This isn’t the first time non-Japanese have left their mark in sumo. Only now, sumo’s hierarchy is in a quandary because of the overwhelming dominance of Asashoryu and the sheer number of foreign wrestlers moving up the ranks.
A decade ago, a trio of Hawaiian wrestlers – grand champions Akebono, Musashimaru and ozeki Konishiki – made their presence felt on the raised ring.
Musashimaru, who retired in 2004 after winning 12 Emperor’s Cups, was the most successful foreign wrestler. Barring major injury, Asashoryu will surpass his achievements this year.
Unlike the Hawaiian wave of the 1990s, this influx of talent is multinational. Asashoryu leads a foreign contingent that features Mongolians, Russians, Bulgarians and South Koreans.
After Asashoryu, 19-year-old Mongolian Hakuho is perhaps the most promising sumo wrestler. Hakuho, who has vaulted to the third-highest rank of komusubi after making his makuuchi debut in May 2004, went 11-4 in the New Year tourney to win the meet’s Technique Award.
Other up-and-coming stars include Bulgaria’s Kotooshu, Russia’s Roho and South Korea’s Kasugao, who was in contention in the New Year tournament until Asashoryu clinched the title with two days remaining.
Some contend Asashoryu has benefited from a watered-down field. Musashimaru insists the Mongolian’s ascent has more to do with the method in which higher-ranked Japanese wrestlers approach their sport.
Sekiwake Tochiazuma went 11-4 in the New Year tourney and will return to ozeki – the sport’s second-highest rank – for the next tournament.
Whether he can join Asashoryu at the pinnacle, and help Japan regain its grip on sumo, are questions that remain to be seen.
“Right now, a lot Japanese wrestlers seem to lack the confidence,” Musashimaru said. “I think Tochiazuma is the closest, but he will have to work harder, as will all the others.”