Japanese Media Stalk Asashoryu
Poor Asashoryu. The media frenzy over his suspension from sumo wrestling and subsequent return to Mongolia continues as strong as ever. Yesterday reporters were trying to get a look at the complex where Asa is said to be staying:
A bit excessive, don’t you think? In today’s Japan Times, James Erikkson and Arudou Debito think so, criticizing the media for ignoring much bigger problems in the sport and unfairly focusing on the Asashoryu scandal. Here’s an excerpt:
Some might say Asa has long had it coming. He’s known as the bad boy of sumo, reputedly showing violent tendencies toward junior wrestlers and, according to the weeklies and wide shows, even his wife.
Therefore his record, in a sport where winning is everything, was the only thing keeping the hounds at bay.
But it’s not as if he stopped winning. What’s changed is that as of May we finally have another yokozuna, Hakuho. It seems Asashoryu is now expendable.
The point is, the whole soccer-sumo scandal is a smoke-screen. Sumo is in a panic and needs a scapegoat.
Not only did sumo face a further slew of allegations of bout-fixing last March, but another embarrassing statistic popped up in July: No Japanese signed up at the entry level to become junior wrestlers for the first time in history. True, they signed up at earlier sessions this year, but this unprecedented dip to zero was bound to attract unwelcome headlines.
So despite another yokozuna’s appearance on the scene, Asa was apparently needed this summer to help recruitment. Even though people realized that after he got back from Mongolia.
Some might say that Asa is being given too much benefit of the doubt here. But the fact remains that it’s not a fair fight: One guy versus the JSA and the Japanese media. Especially since sumo as a sport has barely been called to account for its own excesses.
