Have you ever heard of Sumo? It's a Japanese style of wrestling and Japan's national sport. In Japan, Sumo has been drawing considerable public attention in the past few years.Unfortunately, this is because scandals relating to Sumo wrestlers and the Japan Sumo Association have been discovered one after another (All the wrestlers belong to the association). About a week ago, irrefutable evidence about fixed matches was found while detectives were investigating another scandal. Some text messages restored by the police have shown that some Sumo wrestlers were negotiating with their opponents about how to and who would loose their matches. Although a lot of people had been wondering for many years if there were fixed matches, the unquestionable evidence shocked them.
I'm familiar with Sumo because when I was little, my father would tune in to Sumo matches whenever they were held. He taught me a lot of things about Sumo while watching the matches. However, I still don't know about some of the traditions and systems relating to Sumo. I've assumed that they had already faded outside of sumo society and so it's hard to understand them. I've also felt that the traditions are necessary for Sumo but they are in ares which ordinary people cannot deal with. What I'm trying to say here is that there have been gray zones in the Sumo Association.
The suspicion of fixed games and matches always lingers around sport matches. A Sumo tournament is held every two months. Every tournament lasts 15 days and there are more than 100 matches each day. Given these circumstances, fixed matches in Sumo tournaments aren't surprising to me. Actually, what surprises me most is the Japan Sumo Association and the people involved in it. They still seem to cling tenaciously to traditional management ways although many scandals have proven that they can't control risks these ways. Last year, the association finally added a university professor and an expert as board members, but all other board members are retired Sumo wrestlers (Only strong Sumo wrestlers who meet certain conditions are allowed to work for the association after retirement).
Many Sumo wrestlers leave their homes when they complete compulsory education, in other words, when they graduate from junior high schools (I think that the number of Sumo wrestlers who are high school or university graduates has been increasing). After that, they spend most of their time in Sumo stables. Since they are required to devote a lot of effort to becoming strong Sumo wrestlers, it's not easy for them to learn things other than Sumo. Despite that, almost all the board members are retired Sumo wrestlers. How can I expect them to manage such a big association in times where unpredictable things can suddenly happen? Haven't they realized that risk management by professionals is necessary?
Actually, not changing as the times demand isn't peculiar to the Sumo Association. Now is the time to change for a lot of Japanese people, companies and government. Otherwise, Japan won't be able to survive.
Have you ever heard of Sumo? It's a Japanese style of wrestling and Japan's national sport. In Japan, Sumo has been drawing considerable public attention in the past few years.Unfortunately, this is because scandals relating to Sumo wrestlers and the Japan Sumo Association have been discovered one after another (All the wrestlers belong to the association). About a week ago, irrefutable evidence about fixed matches was found while detectives were investigating another scandal. Some text messages restored by the police have shown that some Sumo wrestlers were negotiating with their opponents about how to and who would loose their matches. Although a lot of people had been wondering for many years if there were fixed matches, the unquestionable evidence shocked them.
The suspicion of fixed games and matches always lingers around sport matches. A Sumo tournament is held every two months. Every tournament lasts 15 days and there are more than 100 matches each day. Given these circumstances, fixed matches in Sumo tournaments aren't surprising to me. Actually, what surprises me most is the Japan Sumo Association and the people involved in it. They still seem to cling tenaciously to traditional management ways although many scandals have proven that they can't control risks these ways. Last year, the association finally added a university professor and an expert as board members, but all other board members are retired Sumo wrestlers (Only strong Sumo wrestlers who meet certain conditions are allowed to work for the association after retirement). 
Many Sumo wrestlers leave their homes when they complete compulsory education, in other words, when they graduate from junior high schools (I think that the number of Sumo wrestlers who are high school or university graduates has been increasing). After that, they spend most of their time in Sumo stables. Since they are required to devote a lot of effort to becoming strong Sumo wrestlers, it's not easy for them to learn things other than Sumo. Despite that, almost all the board members are retired Sumo wrestlers. How can I expect them to manage such a big association in times where unpredictable things can suddenly happen? Haven't they realized that risk management by professionals is necessary?