A sumo champion is rebuked
(From The Japan Times August 4 issue)

朝青龍に対する処分

    The Japan Sumo Association has suspended yokozuna Asashoryu from the next two grand sumo tournaments for playing soccer in his home country, Mongolia, after he had notified the association that he would sit out the Aug. 3 to 20 summer regional tour in eastern Japan because of injuries.

This is a severe punishment for a champion who has won 21 tournaments. The yokozuna will be barred from the respective fall (Tokyo) and Kyushu (Fukuoka) meets in September and November, and take a 30 percent salary cut for four months. In principle, he must confine himself to his residence, his stable or a hospital.

The punishment fits. Asashoryu had submitted a medical report indicating that he would need at least six weeks to recover from injuries. But on Japanese television, he was shown running around a soccer field with former Japan midfielder Hidetoshi Nakata at a Mongolian charity event. The action appeared to make light of sumo fans who cannot normally attend regular grand sumo tournaments.

Asashoryu's failure to behave properly can be attributed to the association's past failure to be strict with him. He is known to have gotten drunk and become violent, grabbed his opponent's topknot, and seriously injured a hopeful sumo wrestler by using a violent sumo technique during practice. But the association was soft on him. In a sense, Asashoryu has been spoiled.

This time the sumo association could not help meting out strict disciplinary measures against him; the Yokozuna Promotion Council had demanded that it do so. Many sumo fans who reside near places that the summer regional tour was scheduled to visit were angry, and promoters of the tour were worried about losing sponsorship money amid a scandal.

Asashoryu's stable master Takasago, former ozeki Asashio, bears serious responsibility. If he had been more conscious of his role in educating Asashoryu about the way of sumo, particularly on the manners and behavior expected of a yokozuna, the incident this time could have been avoided.

    横綱は最低6週間のけがの治療を必要とするとの診断書を提出していたが、モンゴルでサッカーに興じている場面がテレビ放映された。

    朝青龍の不品行は、彼を甘やかしてきた日本相撲協会に原因がある。朝青龍は、酔って乱暴を働いたり、対戦相手のまげを掴んだり、けいこ場で無理な技を使い相手にけがをさせたりした。

    朝青龍の師匠、高砂親方は、朝青龍の不品行に重い責任がある。親方が朝青龍に対し、横綱に期待される品位を十分に教育していれば、現在の問題は避けられたはずだ。