Los Angeles Times (August 5)
“You can see 50 of sumo’s elite Saturday in Long Beach. Among the highlights: Byamba going for his ninth consecutive Open title, probably including a match against Kelly Gneiting, a gritty 440-pound American whom Byamba body-slammed two years ago in ‘the bounce heard ‘round the world.’ That’s sumo for you. Quirky, yet seismic. And not just Japanese anymore.”
Wall Street Journal (February 9)
Cheating is not “a new phenomenon in Japan’s national sport,” but the current scandal rocking the sumo world is different because “hard evidence in this case is forcing Japanese to confront the reality and seriousness of the problem.” The reality is the incentive structure needs to be changed. One possible solution is pay sumo wrestlers with prize purses, “like boxers, far more if they win than lose, rather the current system of giving them monthly salaries plus relatively small incentive payments.”
