Champion wrestler Kotomitsuki was booted out of the ancient sport earlier this month after a probe into an illegal betting racket with reported ties to local gangsters.
Sumo has lurched from one crisis to another in recent years and public broadcaster NHK cancelled live coverage for the first time since 1953 earlier this month.
Veteran NHK commentator Kunihiro Sugiyama said a surfeit of sumo gyms — known as “stables” — made the enterprises unprofitable and easy prey for “yakuza” crime syndicates.
“The sumo world has to cut its links with the anti-social forces by restructuring and reducing the number of stables from the current 51 to no more than 40,” Sugiyama told a news conference.
“Retired wrestlers these days want to make money quickly by establishing their own stables,” he added. “They borrow a lot and that’s why they become vulnerable to crime syndicates always eager to make them dependent through loans.”
The gambling scandal and subsequent investigations into yakuza connections has prompted widespread calls for reform with Japan’s government also urging sumo to clean up its act. The number of spectators during this month’s two-week tournament in Nagoya snubbed by NHK fell by around 10 per cent compared to last year.
The six annual major tournaments generated an estimated revenue of 8.5 billion yen (RM312 million) but sponsor interest has also waned as a result of the latest uproar.
Sumo’s image has taken a battering in recent years after corrosive assault, drugs and drink scandals.
The sport’s biggest name, Mongolian Asashoryu, quit earlier this year after accusations that he had broken a man’s nose while in a drunken rage outside a Tokyo nightclub.
Young Japanese opting for careers in the closeted, Spartan world of sumo are rapidly dwindling, and foreign wrestlers, such as lone “yokozuna” Hakuho, another Mongolian, are filling the gaps.
The worrying trend led Sugiyama to call on foreigners to rescue the sport’s honour.
“Foreign wrestlers are crucial to sumo and Japan,” he said. “So please help protect Japanese culture.” — Reuters
