Inside Sport Japan

They have a much better chance in the latter. There are about 2,000 to 2,500 full time professional football players between the NFL and CFL In soccer in 2021 there were an estimated 130,000 male professional players

As a sport related businesses we do have a dog in the fight. That may color our perceptions, but..... ...it also means we've seen enough over the years to know that almost ANYTHING can become popular if marketed well enough. Amateur sumo in Japan doesn't grow because virtually no one involved sees it as a spectator sport. That's not a problem unique to sumo but it's very overt in that sport. Everything is done solely for the participants themselves with occasional thought given to family and friends. The almost non existent promotion is wholly aimed at increasing athlete not spectator numbers. Internationally it's not much different but the US Open has shown that putting in the work can result in a profit and steadily growth - and that's mostly a one-man operation. It would take money and time (both likely unforthcoming) from people with ability, ambition and a willingness to see the project through but a self sustaining semi-pro sumo league or tour in 3,000 to 5,000 seater arenas is achievable.

One of the sports that we cover most is American football and there are a lot of parallels there. One professional league that hoovers up 99.9999% of the money, coverage and attention. A whole bunch of amateur and semi pro leagues toiling in obscurity around the world, that come and go and are rife with internal and external feuds, and shady dealings. No league is ever going to challenge the NFL in any sense or even approach its power or draw. Similarly no amateur sumo competition is ever going to outshine ozumo - even if by some miracle the sport actually makes the Olympic Games some day. But amateur sumo could easily become something similar to, or better than, the XLeague, ELF, or GFL. Those are very low bars admittedly but they do provide a living for a certain number of (mostly American) athletes and increasingly a route into US / Canadian professional leagues. The chances of even that happening are low for sure, but there is potential.

It's the ugly duckling with the potential to be a swan is kind of what we're arguing. It needs to change pretty much everything in terms of how it's run and promoted but the sport itself is fast, easy to follow and exciting. Going the 'Battle of the Giants in Madison Square Garden' style route is one way it could be taken, but even as a simple semi-pro sport if it was properly run and marketed it could easily outperform plenty of other minor sports that tick along fine and provide a living for many of their athletes. If there are semi-professional frisbee leagues you'll never convince us there couldn't also be a sumo one.

We didn't do anything but link it. There's no paywall?

It's doubtful most of the people there knew anything at all about professional sumo. If you are saying they just had an image of sumo in their heads that came from the portrayal of sumo in movies etc then you may be right, but that only makes the quick sell out even more impressive if anything. Hard disagree on this for many reasons but partly because... ...the most common reaction we saw was a variation of "I knew nothing about sumo and now I love it. Where can I see more?" A certain amount of that is attributable to adrenaline and the after-buzz of the event, but even those emotions show the ability of any kind of sumo to instantly capture the imagination. Over the past six years we've seen high engagement and retention rates among those exposed to sumo for the first time. Most people on this site can probably remember that initially kick and how it led into a years or decades-long fandom that required real work to maintain. Yes that is primarily related to professional sumo which is intrinsically more interesting, complex and skilled than amateur sumo, but the latter has a lot of the same addictive qualities in its action and is drawing increased interest as more and more information in English becomes available. Ten years ago following the Japanese college scene or getting results from tournaments abroad if you only spoke English was extremely difficult. Greater media focus on, and availability of ways to watch, professional sumo has already resulted in a mini boom in clubs and numbers doing the sport in the US, and that's without domestic sources there covering it. There is a large amount of prominent sumo based content coming to some major platforms in the United States over the next year or two. We're saying sumo will experience an F1 - Drive to Survive type boost in exposure (though some of the same people are involved) but it's going to be in front of A LOT more eyeballs than before. International amateur sumo is going to see a significant uptick in interest - solely by being the only form of the sport physically accessible to the new wave of fans that is coming. Whether or not it can capitalize on it that exposure another issue.

World Games chaos highlights amateur sumo's structural flaws

That's hilarious. It's something he's obviously repeated because it's the first thing that sprung to mind here too when reading Seiyashi's post.

The page is 'Kakuryu Retirement Ceremony Executive Office" - a temporary organization literally set up to plan an event. None of Facebooks other preset designations fit it better.

"Event Planner" is just the most appropriate of Facebook's preset page designations - one of which you have to chose when setting up a page.

Also zero is not 'before' the number but part of the number. In many countries virtually all telephone numbers begin with zero. It's the case as far as we know in Japan, the UK, Ireland, Australia, Belgium, Turkey, and Argentina to name a few.

Dropping the initial zero when dialing internationally is common around the world. It's not a Japan specific thing. Likewise Facebook seems to display the number correctly based on your location. For us inside Japan it shows 03-6240-2002

Yes. No. No. No. No.

The All Japan College Sumo Championships (Women) took place today at Nihon University Sumo Dojo. The hosts were dominant in the team tournament with their A team beating their B team in the final. Openweight winner was Ami Fukuzato (University of Shizuoka). Rest of the results to follow.

Already 23 means virtually no chance. There have been younger and more accomplished Georgians in the past that couldn't get in because they were 'too old'. If you are coming from abroad 18 or 19 is about as late as you can leave it these days.

No idea.

After numerous revisions to the competitor list, this has just been sent by IFS to national governing bodies.

It's worth bearing in mind that masks are still almost universal here even among people walking alone outside. Vaccination rates are very high too. Even in outdoor stadiums hosting soccer and rugby, masks are worn and cheering isn't allowed. Footage from abroad showing no masks even during indoor gatherings, and life back to normal - despite the continued presence of the pandemic - is genuinely shocking when you are used to the Japanese approach. To many people here it seems like the much of the world has given up and is just letting the virus run rampant. Against that backdrop it's unsurprising that keeping the current restrictions or even tightening them further is the view held by most. Plans to allow unvaccinated tourists in is only hardening that opinion from what we can see.

Badly. Hearing that in theory it could lead to deportation and almost certainly a flurry of news reports that would harden resistance to opening the border. In practice it's hard to know but the initial groups at least are bound to be monitored more closely.

Yes. I understood you were probably referring to Yamato Japanese and wasn't taking a shot at you - just attempting to point out that phrases like 'pure Japanese' are particularly inflammatory among the Ryukyuan people. Unlike the Ainu they remain officially unacknowledged by the government. I don't know Otani's family background but he is, as far as I know, from Okinawa - a place where native (non Yamato) Japanese have long been discriminated against. The point I'm (obviously badly) making is that anyone casually speculating about the 'Japaneseness' of someone from Okinawa because of physical differences to Yamato people is venturing into a minefield.