New NSK council with Sadaharu Oh

[Akinomaki 40,814]

The rijikai yesterday also decided to install a new experts council to think about developing the inheritance of sumo into the future, coping with the internationalization, respecting the presently drafted governance code of the sports agency as guideline for the management of competition associations like the NSK is (the draft includes the demand for at least 40% of female riji). The council is advisory committee for the rijicho and should compile within a year and a half guidelines for the NSK's own governance rules, especially how to guide foreign born rikishi - all measures to cope with the violence scandals, where Harumafuji is the quoted example.

8 members, with baseball legend Sadaharu Oh the most prominent, prominent kabuki and film actor (now under the name of:) Matsumoto_Hakuō_II, actress Misako Konno,  writer Takashi Atouda 阿刀田高 (German, French wiki available),  honorary Keidanren president Takashi Imai 今井敬, former supreme court judge Takehiko Ootani  大谷剛彦, lawyer Keiichi Tadaki 但木敬一, as chairman YDC member Masayuki Yamauchi 山内昌之.

The first meeting of the council is scheduled for June

http://mainichi.jp/articles/20190531/k00/00m/050/013000c

http://www.jiji.com/jc/article?k=2019053001039&g=spo

Edited May 31, 2019 by Akinomaki

[Benihana 1,937]

  On 31/05/2019 at 04:19, Akinomaki said:

(the draft includes the demand for at least 40% of female riji)

Do i understand this correct? 40% females in the rijikai?

[Akinomaki 40,814]

  On 31/05/2019 at 08:19, Benihana said:

Do i understand this correct? 40% females in the rijikai?

These are the (not yet finalized) general guidelines for all organizations - and the NSK promised to respect them, so ...

... the new council will have plenty to think about (with only 1 female member)

[Benihana 1,937]

Well, if in the end they don't get exempted from that rule, i see only two ways: Outside staff and okamisan. The okamisan are so important for sumo, they finally should get more influence in the whole operation. But what do i gaijin know.  I'm curious with what they will come up.

[Tsuchinoninjin 1,276]

  On 31/05/2019 at 08:19, Benihana said:

Do i understand this correct? 40% females in the rijikai?

Companies were approached with a similar demand for new hires a few years ago. Essentially with a dwindling working population having 50% of your able bodied population sitting at home not participating in the economy is a bad thing for the GDP.

 

So it seems the request is spreading to orgs attached to ministries / board level positions.

[Otokonoyama 2,735]

  On 31/05/2019 at 10:58, Tsuchinoninjin said:

Companies were approached with a similar demand for new hires a few years ago. Essentially with a dwindling working population having 50% of your able bodied population sitting at home not participating in the economy is a bad thing for the GDP.

 

So it seems the request is spreading to orgs attached to ministries / board level positions.

How do we reconcile that with the shrinking population and desire to increase the birthrate?

https://japantoday.com/category/politics/japanese-politician’s-birthrate-plan-have-parents-nag-their-kids-to-have-at-least-3-babies

[Otokonoyama 2,735]

Sumo is very Lindy. An idea that has survived the test of time. There is real soul in the game.

https://medium.com/incerto/an-expert-called-lindy-fdb30f146eaf

[Gurowake 4,109]

Is Sadaharu Oh a Japanese citizen?  He clearly identifies somewhat with Japan, but he's been a Republic of China citizen his whole life even though he was born in Japan to a Japanese mother.  I don't know if he was forced to choose between Japanese and Republic of China citizenship when he came of age, as the Communists took over the mainland during his youth and the now "Taiwanese" citizenship might not be regarded as a barrier to Japanese citizenship.  On the other hand, Japan officially regarded the RoC as the government of the mainland until 1972, well after he would have needed to choose.  I would have to imagine it to be somewhat difficult to travel internationally on only a RoC passport, but I'm not all that familiar with the complicated mess of situation it is other than it's not simple.

[Ryoshishokunin 323]

  On 31/05/2019 at 11:50, Otokonoyama said:

How do we reconcile that with the shrinking population and desire to increase the birthrate?

By letting women who have careers have children and vice versa.  In Japan it's often seen as a binary choice--either you have kids, or you have a job, which makes a large number of women not want to have kids.  It also lead to barriers to re-entering the workforce for women that already have children.

[Otokonoyama 2,735]

  On 31/05/2019 at 21:47, Ryoshishokunin said:

By letting women who have careers have children and vice versa.  In Japan it's often seen as a binary choice--either you have kids, or you have a job, which makes a large number of women not want to have kids.  It also lead to barriers to re-entering the workforce for women that already have children.

That is much too simplistic. Choices have to be made. None of them are bad or wrong. But they are very complicated and difficult decisions. Hard calls have to be made. And they will differ for everyone. It's not only Japan, it's the entire world. Whether Scandinavia or Singapore, you can't socially engineer this stuff.

[WAKATAKE 2,672]

  On 31/05/2019 at 21:39, Gurowake said:

Is Sadaharu Oh a Japanese citizen?  He clearly identifies somewhat with Japan, but he's been a Republic of China citizen his whole life even though he was born in Japan to a Japanese mother.  I don't know if he was forced to choose between Japanese and Republic of China citizenship when he came of age, as the Communists took over the mainland during his youth and the now "Taiwanese" citizenship might not be regarded as a barrier to Japanese citizenship.  On the other hand, Japan officially regarded the RoC as the government of the mainland until 1972, well after he would have needed to choose.  I would have to imagine it to be somewhat difficult to travel internationally on only a RoC passport, but I'm not all that familiar with the complicated mess of situation it is other than it's not simple.

Sadaharu Oh does hold ROC citizenship, but he was born in Japan and appears to have pretty much spent his life in Japan. Seeing as that is the case you would have to imagine that he has permanent residence. Just because he has ROC citizenship isn't going to hold him back from being involved in things like this, he is a hero to many in the Japanese public. 

[Gurowake 4,109]

  On 01/06/2019 at 04:36, WAKATAKE said:

Sadaharu Oh does hold ROC citizenship, but he was born in Japan and appears to have pretty much spent his life in Japan. Seeing as that is the case you would have to imagine that he has permanent residence. Just because he has ROC citizenship isn't going to hold him back from being involved in things like this, he is a hero to many in the Japanese public. 

I agree completely.  I was intending to contrast his lack of citizenship and membership in this council with the requirement that an oyakata be a citizen of Japan, as to highlight the absurdity of the latter.

[Yamanashi 3,904]

  On 01/06/2019 at 13:53, Gurowake said:

I agree completely.  I was intending to contrast his lack of citizenship and membership in this council with the requirement that an oyakata be a citizen of Japan, as to highlight the absurdity of the latter.

Well, they have women on the committee, too.

[Ryoshishokunin 323]

  On 01/06/2019 at 04:31, Otokonoyama said:

That is much too simplistic. Choices have to be made. None of them are bad or wrong. But they are very complicated and difficult decisions. Hard calls have to be made. And they will differ for everyone. It's not only Japan, it's the entire world. Whether Scandinavia or Singapore, you can't socially engineer this stuff.

They're certainly trying to socially engineer.  Culture makes a huge difference. 

[Akinomaki 40,814]

  On 31/05/2019 at 10:08, Akinomaki said:

  On 31/05/2019 at 08:19, Benihana said:

Do i understand this correct? 40% females in the rijikai?

These are the (not yet finalized) general guidelines for all organizations - and the NSK promised to respect them, so ...

It is easier for the amateurs: the Japan Sumo Federation has appointed for the first time 3 female riji http://www.sanspo.com/sports/news/20190615/spo19061519290015-n1.html

they have 10(plain)+8(executive)+1(managing) riji and 4 on the top above that (not updated yet:) http://www.nihonsumo-renmei.jp/about/#yakuin

[Akinomaki 40,814]

  On 31/05/2019 at 04:19, Akinomaki said:

The first meeting of the council is scheduled for June

Today was the first meeting of the new council

vid

Oh,  Matsumoto Hakuo

o o

o o

Misako Konno

o o o

o o

afterwards the press conference - they just started to think about how to preserve sumo culture, tradition and history

o o

Going to asageiko - also the YDC keiko soken - and to a hon-basho is on the agenda of the council. They want to have one council meeting every 3 months.

Edited June 22, 2019 by Akinomaki

[Akinomaki 40,814]

The meeting lasted for about 140 minutes, but Oh left after 15 and Matsumoto after 30 minutes, the real discussion was with 6 members and 3 NSK rji: Hakkkaku, Shibatayama and external riji Toshikazu Yamaguchi 山口壽一 , Yomiuri shimbun group president and -Giants team owner o

Oh, Matsumoto, council head Yamauchi, Imai, Hakkkaku, Yamaguchi o

other side: Konno, Atoda, Otani, Tadaki and Shibatayama

Yamauchi with Hakkaku and PR Shibatayama did the press conference

o

TBS news video: http://news.tbs.co.jp/newseye/tbs_newseye3706292.html

Edited June 22, 2019 by Akinomaki

[Akinomaki 40,814]

  On 31/05/2019 at 04:19, Akinomaki said:

a new experts council to think about developing the inheritance of sumo into the future, coping with the internationalization, respecting the presently drafted governance code of the sports agency as guideline for the management of competition associations like the NSK is

The Sports Agency today has compiled the draft of the new governance code for competitive sports associations. Regional associations will have to follow it to "rectify" their operations, big organizations like national baseball and the NSK have the task to develop their own own governance codes, using the Sports Agency code as a reference. http://www.sanspo.com/sports/news/20190806/spo19080619470006-n1.html

[Akinomaki 40,814]

  On 06/08/2019 at 15:13, Akinomaki said:

The Sports Agency today has compiled the draft of the new governance code for competitive sports associations. Regional associations will have to follow it to "rectify" their operations, big organizations like national baseball and the NSK have the task to develop their own own governance codes, using the Sports Agency code as a reference.

The Sports Agency has published the new governance code for National (central) sports contest Federations NF http://www.mext.go.jp/sports/b_menu/houdou/31/06/__icsFiles/afieldfile/2019/08/30/1417895_01.pdf  (60 pages)

A list of those who are members in the Japan Sports Association, short JSPO https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/日本スポーツ協会#中央競技団体 includes the sumo federation, but not the big professional sports associations. The code aims to get the organizations in line for compliance and appropriate accounting.

The NSK now will have to study this code and have the new committee come up with ideas for a draft of their own governance code to present to the Sports Agency. 

Some points in the code:

• As mentioned, at least 40% female riji  - but that's for NF - and they all have female members. The Agency demands that the female riji should not just be externals, so that's it with this demand for the NSK.
• at least 25% external riji (3 external riji and only 9 oyakata for the NSK - or 4 externals - 2 female)
• a riji should be in office not longer than 10 years in a row

 

Edited August 30, 2019 by Akinomaki

[Akinomaki 40,814]

  On 21/06/2019 at 15:26, Akinomaki said:

Going to asageiko - also the YDC keiko soken - and to a hon-basho is on the agenda of the council. They want to have one council meeting every 3 months.

Today was the 2nd meeting of the Oh council - timed with the keiko soken, which they went to watch first.

oo oo o o

The meeting discussed the state of the heya system, how the task to teach the new recruits the routines for daily life is shouldered by e.g. the chanko-ban, the rikishi internationalization, including the rule of 1 foreigner per heya.

o o o o o o o o

Edited September 1, 2019 by Akinomaki

[Akinomaki 40,814]

Today was the 3rd meeting of the Oh council. They talked for around 2 hours about the internationalization of sumo. The majority was in favor of a path like that of kendo, which managed to preserve the characteristic Japanese rules and tradition. For next time, experts from kendo and judo (which had to abandon all what made the Japanese strong) will be invited.

o

and the council agreed with the NSK demand for voluntary intai to Takanofuji

Press conference of council head  Yamauchi with Hakkaku afterwards

o  o

Edited October 10, 2019 by Akinomaki

[ALAKTORN 346]

The way you call him “Oh” is so confusing. lol

[Akinomaki 40,814]

  On 15/10/2019 at 19:24, ALAKTORN said:

The way you call him “Oh” is so confusing. lol

I do it my way, but calling him that is standard https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sadaharu_Oh

[Akinomaki 40,814]

  On 10/10/2019 at 18:42, Akinomaki said:

Today was the 3rd meeting of the Oh council. They talked for around 2 hours about the internationalization of sumo. The majority was in favor of a path like that of kendo, which managed to preserve the characteristic Japanese rules and tradition. For next time, experts from kendo and judo (which had to abandon all what made the Japanese strong) will be invited.

Today was the 4th meeting - judo's Yamashita pretended that judo succeeded in bringing Japanese spirit to the world: "So that it's easy to understand and to enjoy for the people of the world and fascinating to watch, it keeps changing." For kendo, lawyer Kenji Nagai, 6th dan with 50 years of kendo competition experience, explained that they didn't change rules for internationalization and recommended: "The way to receive kensho money and so on, the sumo world as a whole, by enforcing an accurate beauty of form, could increase the fascination even more, couldn't it?" o

o o o

Edited December 10, 2019 by Akinomaki

[Michishige 66]

  On 09/12/2019 at 13:48, Akinomaki said:

Today was the 4th meeting - judo's Yamashita pretended that judo succeeded in bringing Japanese spirit to the world

Something about seeing "pretended" in this sentence makes me giggle with passive aggressive delight!