Maybe or maybe not because sumo has always had that assimilated psyche about it in our minds so it was never a problem. The real obvious dip came with all the headlines for all the wrong reasons and got worse as they kept on coming. At THAT point the foreign involvement must have added an extra punch but not prior to that. If they had kept it straight forward like it used to be I bet the decline would've just followed the gentle arc of passing generation.
Speaking of the media, here is an article published in GOAL that is quite good. It pre-dates the semi-final but I like how it gives some description of all the players, something that most western media cannot do.
Okay guys, keep the tone down a little bit. Passionated discussions are always welcome, but we don't need to have a war about it.
hahaha in it's heydays bigsoccer was filled with full of love and hatred. looks like things have changed a lot and the place has become quiet to me. oh, btw i'm no sock so don't try to ban me.
WRONG!!!! It has been stated on here that baseball is more popular than football in Japan. Or just look here: "Although football has become very popular in Japan in recent years, the most popular spectator sport of the county is baseball." http://answers.ask.com/Sports/Soccer/what_is_the_most_popular_sport_in_japan
I'm not going to put any input into your argument, but I will say that.... Your source is as lousy as most Keisuke Honda links appear to be "Hey everybody, argument's over. LABW9670 from Ask.answers.com has had his word"
RealFootballRulez, what is your obsession with newspapers? You asked the same thing for the Asian Cup finals about 3 times.
it started with a simple question i suppose. sumo isn't really a "national sports" of Japan btw... this is a controversial one so not digging too much here though...
Asashoryu's retirement was a big blow too, though he was from Mongolia he was very popular (and exciting).
Nice Wake-up news for Japan! Probably too late for the newspaper, but I am sure this will be all over Japanese TV this Monday.