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Ruling body of
sumo denies claims
of match-fixing

By Ginny Parker
Associated Press

TOKYO (AP) - Japan's sumo wrestlers apparently have nothing to hide.

After a former wrestler alleged that the ancient sport was rife with fixed bouts, the Japan Sumo Association launched an investigation. On Tuesday, after questioning 19 athletes, they said they found no evidence of wrongdoing that the retired wrestler Keisuke Itai had raised.

"We found nothing to back up what he said," said Tokitsukaze, a former wrestler and chairman of the sumo association. "The wrestlers vehemently denied the allegations."

Itai, who retired in 1991, had set off a media frenzy in Japan earlier this year when he announced that many sumo bouts are fixed and acknowledged he intentionally lost many of his own bouts. He said he hoped to revive flagging interest in the sport by rooting out corruption.

All those Itai had identified - including Hawaiian-born grand champion Akebono - were questioned individually by lawyers and sumo association elders, said Tokitsukaze, who like many wrestlers goes by only one name.

Still, the scandal comes as no surprise to most sumo fans, who have seen similar controversies overshadow the sport that has for long been as much an art form as well as a symbol of Japan.

Two centuries old and with roots in the indigenous Shinto religion, sumo is considered Japan's national sport, although it lags behind professional baseball in popularity.

It is fought one-on-one by athletes who wear little more than a thong-type wrap, trying to wrestle each other down or out of an elevated clay ring. Purity is all-important, and the ring is blessed by priests and purified with salt before each bout.

Experts say bout-rigging goes back hundreds of years. Such bouts are usually arranged among wrestlers to help someone score the extra win he needs to maintain or be promoted to a higher rank.

"This has come from way back when, and it comes up from time to time into the public notice and into the press," said Andy Adams, publisher of Tokyo-based Sumo World magazine. "It's all part and parcel of sumo."

In a series of tabloid articles four years ago, the former wrestler Onaruto talked about wrestlers who smoked marijuana, cheated on taxes, hung out with gangsters, joined in orgies and frequently lost matches for money. Sumo officials denied it all.

But shortly afterward, Japan's top sumo family was hit with back taxes for failing to report more than $3.8 million in income.

Tokitsukaze pointed out that in 1996, Itai had denied Onaruto's claims about match-fixing. He said this should show Itai cannot be believed.

"I think most people will realize what happened and will recognize the facts," Tokitsukaze said.

The association, however, does not plan to sue Itai as it once suggested. Such action would take up the wrestlers' time by requiring them to appear in court, Tokitsukaze said.

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JSA repeats denials over
alleged sumo bout-rigging

Kyodo News Service

TOKYO, April 25 (Kyodo) - The Japan Sumo Association (JSA) on Tuesday repeated its denial over allegations of bout-rigging, made publicly by former wrestler Keisuke Itai in two speeches in Tokyo earlier this year.

JSA Chairman Tokitsukaze told reporters that 18 active wrestlers named by Itai as being involved in match-fixing have all denied the allegations, but he surprisingly indicated that the association will not go through with its threat of legal action.

"Going to court over this would take a lot of time and effort. We have decided that it would be better at this point to let the wrestlers make their point on the ring," Tokitsukaze told a press gathering at Tokyo's Ryogoku Kokugikan.

The JSA head also produced a copy of a 1996 magazine article in which Itai reportedly denied that wrestlers took dives for money, adding, "(Itai's) allegations just don't make sense."

Itai, a former komusubi, claimed at the Foreign Correspondents Club of Japan in January and February that the practice of "yaocho" is commonplace in sumo and named 18 wrestlers - including yokozuna Akebono - who, he said, are regularly involved in bout-rigging.

However, JSA officials are happy that the 18 wrestlers, questioned during the provincial tour earlier this month, are "clean" and again challenged Itai to produce some concrete evidence to back up his allegations.

"If someone claims that bout-fixing goes on, then it's up to them to offer the relevant proof. If and when he does, we can offer a defense," JSA lawyer Keiji Isaji said.

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For more sumo information online, try:
Sumo Web
Da Kine Sumo E-zine
Ozumo
Kyodo News Service