The Sport of Sumo Tries to Clean Up its Act
The sports world seems to be embroiled in a series of illegal scams and scandals at the moment. The cricket scam is the latest in a line of big problems affecting sports in general. Before the match-fixing allegations to hit cricket, there were the problems the sport of sumo was facing.
In Japan, the sport of sumo has achieved legendary status as have several crime syndicates of the country. It seems these two have been mixing for a long time and now the police and the governing body of the sport are trying to clean up sumo and stop all dodgy practices. We cannot be sure if they will be successful but they have stepped up efforts in the right direction.
The sport of sumo has long standing traditions and originated in ancient Japan. Over the years, it has become one of the most popular sports in the country and its athletes are national celebrities if not internationally recognized. With the rising popularity of the sport and the increased money that started to get involved, the Japanese mafia, also known as the Yakuza, and several crime syndicates; the biggest of which is the Yamaguchi-gumi, got involved and tried to fix matches, set up illegal gambling schemes and did a lot of other scandalous activities that have thrown the whole sport into disrepute, (Kimiko de Freytas-Tamura, 2010). A sport with noble and ancient traditions has been reduced to a den of illegal activity.
It seems the problem for the sport is a lack of money; this is a similar concern that afflicts a lot of sports who do not pay their athletes well. Even though the top ranked wrestlers in sumo get paid a very high salary per month, the lower level wrestlers have to survive on a mere monthly living allowance. This makes them a prime target for crime organisations that wine and dine them and give them gifts.
The gift giving is in order to lure the young wrestlers into the seedy trap of the gangsters who then pay the wrestlers to throw matches and take part in rigged betting schemes. These dodgy activities were unearthed recently when illegal betting was found to have been done by some of the top wrestlers in the country. Japan has strict betting laws and anyone found to violate them can face prison terms and expulsion from the sport.
Out of the 700 or so wrestlers and stable masters operating in the sport, 65 were found to have placed illegal bets on a number of different sports over the last few years, (Justin McCurry, 2010). Those 65 have been sacked from the sport but it has uncovered just the tip of the iceberg with many more revelations likely to come in the future.
This is a critical time for sumo wrestling in Japan; it can clean up its act and reinvent itself or it can wither away and die. The governing body of the ancient sport needs to do something quickly because for the first time in sumo’s long and glorious history matches were not shown on national television because of the scandals surrounding them.
The biggest sponsor, the food giant Nagatanien has withdrawn as has printing giant Fuji-Xerox. The sport finally seems to be taking positive steps in the right direction by firing the offending wrestlers and trying to sever ties with crime syndicates and the mafia. CCTV cameras have been installed in all match venues and anyone with known ties to crime organisations will not be allowed to enter the matches and watch the sport, (BBC, 2010). In a surprise move, the head of the Japanese Sumo Association, the JSA, has stepped aside in favour of someone new to clean up the sport.
Like cricket, sumo has a lot of work ahead of it to win back the trust of the fans and the sponsors. Sumo will have to seriously clean up its act and purge itself of all criminal activity that has been found in the sport. In a few years time if sumo can become clean, it may once again become the darling sport of Japan, if not then there is always baseball for them to enjoy.
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