Sumo Kyokai seeks Koenkai

[Kintamayama 45,086]

The Kyokai is showing signs of breaking their old age tradition of doing virtually nothing to bring in the crowds. As the attendance continues to remain low (although there has been some "movement' lately..) they have come up with a new plan. A Kyokai Koenkai, - a support group of sponsors for the Kyokai. Official name- "Oozumo Ouen Kura-bu", (Sumo assistance club) with the "Kurabu" part a double meaning on the English "club".

大相撲応援倶楽部. Till now, this was routine for a heya, but the Kyokai as a body has never done this before. The plan is this: try to persuade corporate groups to "join" for 500,000-1 million yen per year. Target-200 groups, for a grand total of 1 billion yen a year at least. What are they promised in return? Since the weekday attendance has been hovering around 60 percent lately, many masu seats are empty. The plan is to give free masu "B" seats at a total cost of 123000 yen for the three Tokyo Bashos to the companies that buy their share. In addition, the possibility of getting kenshos for "cost" price, which is almost for free for all intents and purposes.. And, pamphlets and electric billboards with promotions for said companies INSIDE the Kokugikan, if they buy the yearly Koenkai membership. As an added treat, a get-together with Oyakata and rikishi.

This plan is set to be put in motion in September. Two bodies will divide the work between them- The Dentsu advertising agency and the JTB travel company, each will try to recruit 100 companies each. If all goes well, private fans may be able to join. The success of this whole plan during these difficult financial times in Japan remains to be seen.

OTOH, this attempt in itself seems to me a step in the right direction, and frankly, quite refreshing..

Oh yes..here are the phone numbers if your company is interested...

Dentsu Advertising Executive office-０３・６２２９・２７１２

JTB Executive office - ０３・５７９６・５８０４

Probably in Japanese.

Edited April 12, 2004 by Kintamayama

[Naganoyama 5,906]

I'd like to ask a question. When you translate these interesting snippets from the Japanese press, is it purely your own language skill at work, or are you assisted by any translation software?

[Kintamayama 45,086]

I'd like to ask a question. When you translate these interesting snippets from the Japanese press, is it purely your own language skill at work, or are you assisted by any translation software?

My language skills are not that good. I can converse passibly in Japanese, but can read only hiragana and katakana. My kanji reading is non-existent. I use a translation site, a very good one that actually translates, but it translates word by word, and only translates the kanji. So by piecing stuff together, I manage, hopefully..

I'm pretty sure we have much better Japanese speakers/readers/translators here than me- I just have the time and the will, at this point in history..AND, I enjoy doing it.

The translation site is this, BTW:

http://www.rikai.com/perl/Home.pl

[Mark Buckton 1]

Heard this today from a 20 something year old girl I know. She mentioned the figure 3 million but from where that came...........?

Anyhow, the scary word for me in all this is - Dentsu. In my opinion they will kill off the general public attending.

Take the Toyota Cup (European VS S.American champions - football) - in a stadium built for 55,000 just 5,000 tickets went on domestic open sale at a recent event. Mine came from outside Japan (just 2500 allocated per team) That left 45k going to grey suited salarymen working on their laptops at half time.

Kinta-san - filling the stadium is a good thing - doing it this way - I am not looking forward to it. And ads in the kokugikan - aaaaaaaahhhhhhhh. Baseball stadiums are bad enough.

[Yoavoshimaru 0]

This is an interesting development.

I too don't like having too many corporate types at games at the expense of the public. In many major US sports venues, for example, basically all the best seats are owned by companies. So the good, loud, interested fans have bad seats. And the corporate types who may or may not show up for games don't make any noise or enthusiasm. The overall experience is deteriorated.

However, if done under control (i.e. strictly limiting the number of seats availbale to these corporations to a small portion), this can be a positive thing. It will get more people in the stadium and provide the kyokai with more money to conduct advertising, marketing, jungyo, etc.

And ads in the kokugikan - aaaaaaaahhhhhhhh. Baseball stadiums are bad enough.

I also don't want ads in the kokugikan, but I also don't want kensho banners and I don't want corporate keshomawashi e.g. Samsung. Yet both exist and I don't hear people complaining about them. So this is a natural next step with long-existing precedents.

[Kintamayama 45,086]

Kinta-san - filling the stadium is a good thing - doing it this way - I am not looking forward to it.  And ads in the kokugikan - aaaaaaaahhhhhhhh.  Baseball stadiums are bad enough.

I think they mean to put up electric banners of some sort , not in the hall itself, but on the KK grounds and the entrances, and ads on pamphlets that are circulated daily. I don't think we'll be seeing baseball type ads in the near future...

As for the gray-suited corporate lackeys taking over the seats, it has ALWAYS been like this. Most masu-seki were always impossible to come by-we proletares have always had to get by with the nose bleed seats-nothing new there..

Edited April 13, 2004 by Kintamayama

[Guest Vincentoryu]

As for the gray-suited corporate lackeys taking over the seats, it has ALWAYS been like this. Most masu-seki were always impossible to come by-we proletares have always had to get by with the nose bleed seats-nothing new there..

Until of course the workers revolution will take place. We all know this is inevitable!

[Naganoyama 5,906]

I just have the time and the will, at this point in history..AND, I enjoy doing it.

The translation site is this, BTW:

http://www.rikai.com/perl/Home.pl

Thanks for the information. It is a useful site. Thanks also for the translations, which are much appreciated. (I am not worthy...)

Edited April 14, 2004 by Naganoyama

[Takanobaka 0]

I doubt it will end up being guys sitting on their laptops between bouts. In both America and Japan, corporate seats at sporting events are used primarily for 2 things: networking, and giving the seats to present clients as a reward. Under the second scenario, it's really no different than having a fan in the seats, although the fan would tend to be richer than the average fan. Other than that, it's still someone who wants to go to the game/event. This is primarily how the company I work for uses their box seats, and having sat in them before at Giants Stadium, I can tell you that the clients tend to get just as raucous as the average fan (plus they usually bring their kids, etc.)

As for the first scenario, it really seems to differ between the US and Japan. In the US, people who go to games to network tend to be fairly subdued and stick to business rather than really getting into the game/event. In Japan, on the other hand, it seems like those networking still really get into the event (I can use my father-in-law as an example, but even sitting in the box seats at the Basho you see plenty of executive types hanging out with each other, getting drunk, and shouting for their favorite rikishi). I think the biggest factor here is that it is just more socially acceptable and appropriate to cheer in Japan than it is in the US, at least for the upper classes. In the US, cheering loudly and standing and getting into the game is often seen as something that drunken rednecks do, not something that sophisticated people should do. In Japan, cheering crazily at the right time is not only accepted, but your behavior may be fronwned upon if you don't do it when you should be doing it.

Just a theory, but let me see if anyone agrees on this part. Look at what the higher class entertainment activities (pre-depression) tended to be in the US or in places where most Americans are descendent from: opera, ballet, masquerades, things of the like. All of these require a great deal of restrained applause, at most. On the other hand, lower-to-middle class entertainment activities tended to be things like sporting events (prizefighting, early baseball, horse racing), vaudeville, burlesque, and things of the like where loud behavior was encouraged rather than inhibited. Some of this has carried over into modern day activity, and people who wish to see themselves as higher class tend to carry themselves as they view how an upper class person should behave. While I don't know nearly as much about pre-war Japanese leisure activities, I know that some of the upper-class equivalents (i.e. Kabuki, Noh) tend to be more raucous than their European counterparts when the time to cheer is appropriate. I think if someone in the crowd shouted out the family name of an opera singer during a pause in the dialog (much as people do during Kabuki), they'd probably get escorted out of the concert hall by security and maybe get jumped by about 3 or 4 people after the show. Also, you will almost never hear fans chant in unison at American baseball games (and when they do, it's definately a faint roar involving only about 1/4 of the crowd). whereas Japanese stadiums often seem to explode full throttle into a chant in unison with just about everyone there pitching in. In any case, overall, it just seems that there is less of a class distinction for appropriate times to behave in certain ways at public events in Japanese society than there is in American society, and that's why I don't think it's such a big deal to give empty seats to corporations, even if that means seats are sold out ahead of time to a true fan who doesn't know if they'll be able to go until the last minute won't be able to buy a ticket at the box office (and instead will probably have to settle for Japan's e-bay equivalent).