Brutal bullying death shows dark side of sumo http://www.news.com.au/mercury/story/0,22884,22499826-401,00.html
Re: [NSR]?Japan's national sport in crisis The problem of bullying is not only in sumo. It permeates Japanese society and has very old roots in Japanese history. It is a sad reality. Japan is not immune from violence and stupidity, just as any other country. However, I can attest, after 7 years of experience, that bullying is EXTREMELY rare in soccer. Perhaps because it is still a "foreign" sport...?
Re: [NSR]?Japan's national sport in crisis when i was younger and going to school in japan, I vividly remember Japanese teachers just standing and watching while i'm getting my ass handed to me by much older kids, while playing soccer during recess. I guess the teachers not interfering in the bullying or hazing actually toughened me up, but the sumo wrestler story is pretty extreme.
Re: [NSR]?Japan's national sport in crisis We actually learn about how Japanese teachers deal with bullying and conflicts in school in one of the modules I'm studying now in university LOL. Wasn't there the case of the teacher-in-charge actually kicking his captain (or some other player) in Kagoshima not too long ago?
Re: [NSR]?Japan's national sport in crisis Being a Bangladeshi, I sort of got bullyed in Japanese school but it only lasted like a week. The things is, it's all about the attitude... if you resists, they will keep doing it. If take, "so what" attitude... they will stop, in fact they will be in your side in two or three days, so I never had problems in schools at all.
I don't even like sumo, but I've always felt that the excessive harrassment/bullying that goes on with sumo was out of touch with most modern Japanese people. What was acceptable in the past no longer may be acceptable now. In the past, I heard that teachers were able to hit their students, but not anymore, at least legally. There are tons more reasons that I dislike sumo, but that would make me way off topic, so I'll refrain, but it's no wonder young people (I'm a 20 year old female, by the way) aren't interested in the sport. I mean, who wants to be in a sport where they are forced to be come hugely obese, and where such physical abuse is so common?
Re: [NSR]?Japan's national sport in crisis You are right on. It's a major part of bukatsu and definitely is in pro baseball even though I have seen people try to deny it. I remember most vividly helping out a former major league (US) shortstop working as coach here for a Pacific League team, who related to us, with tears in his eyes, mind you, of witnessing the team manager stand a player up against the wall and beat him in the face. The former major league shortstop was absolutely dumbfounded. The player's infraction: he had come to practice late.
Re: [NSR]?Japan's national sport in crisis A baseball coach in Kyoto killed a 16 or 17yo (forgot) player by overworking him. A few minutes before the boy died, the coach called him a **********. Well, collateral damage...
Re: [NSR]?Japan's national sport in crisis My son is half Japanese, half Italian. He was for one year (2nd grade) in an Elementary in Japan. One 3rd grader bullied him a few times (he put sand in his bag, and other heroic acts of this kind), and once showed out at the park, and unbelievably started pushing my son in front of me (I was on a bench reading, some 20-30 meter away). I told my son to beat the crap out of him, which he did. No more problems, ever. I don't know how educational this is, but it is my only direct experience with Japanese bullying.
Re: [NSR]?Japan's national sport in crisis Well, they make a lot of money, marry beautiful girls, and once they quit they lose weight (apart from the Hawaiians, of course) and they don't look so bad. They can also be on TV every day, if they want. Still, the years of obesity seem to me as a massive nightmare, and the bullying should really be horrible.
Re: [NSR]?Japan's national sport in crisis Haha.. I've done the same thing. I used to play at a park, and a couple of these older kids would give me so much crap and tell me to go back to my country. One time I had to take my little sister (she was like 4 or 5) to the park and watch her, and during that time they threw rocks at her. At that point, I just picked up a huge stick and chased them around the park. After that day, it got to the point where whenever i went to the park, they would just avoid me and go home. Sticks and stones are literally the best solution in these cases
Re: [NSR]?Japan's national sport in crisis Hey, where have you been? Ask any of the sumo-san and they will tell you that it's not easy losing that weight especially since they've spent all those years putting it on. Do you remember the great Taiho? I've never seen a yokozuna like him. He lost a lot of the weight that he had, but it was still not enough to prevent him from having a stroke at the age of 37. His wife helped him a lot in rehab and finally got him moving and talking again and the last time I saw him he was more or less normal (he's about 67 now). The average life expectancy of a sumo-san is 45.
Re: [NSR]?Japan's national sport in crisis at the Junior High and Elementary schools where I work in Miyagi Prefecture, they have a group come once a year to talk to all of the students about bullying. they alter the lesson for each age group, and focus especially on 5th and 6th grade elementary school students and 1st grade JHS students, because statistics show that bullying is most prevalent in that age group. for me it's the sexism that makes this an ignoble sport, although the health concerns for the wrestlers is right up there.
Re: [NSR]?Japan's national sport in crisis Didn't some woman jump into the dohyo and was physically removed by the shimpan guys? I wasn't here in Japan at the time, so I missed it. I remember that one of the ministers (female) was not allowed to present some trophy for the same reason: women are not allowed to enter and "contaminate" the dohyo.
Re: [NSR]?Japan's national sport in crisis yep... but in fairness the woman who tried to enter the ring was obviously crazy/dangerous and should have been stopped regardless of gender. it was the hot news story of the week a couple of weeks ago, though, and they did focus pretty heavily on the fact that she was female and thus barred from the dohyo.
Re: [NSR]?Japan's national sport in crisis But, I believe the reason the media made so much of that particular case was the earlier denial by the Sumo Kyokai of the Government Minister, a woman, to enter the dohyo for presentation of a trophy.
Re: [NSR]?Japan's national sport in crisis Why would a woman want to get in between two fat guys, anyway...?