People making a respectable showing in foreign countries

A few days ago, a Japanese baseball player on the Seattle Mariners, Suzuki Ichiro, obtained 200 hits for 10 straight years.Immediately after he hit his 200th hit of this season, he didn't react on the first base, seemingly hesitating to express his happiness. When he saw his teammates in the bench urging him to response to his fans' cheers, he finally tipped his helmet and smiled. The reason of his hesitation was that he had a traumatic experience in 2008: Some local newspapers criticized him, saying that he was likely to pay more attention to himself than his team. Some said that he had too many infield hits. A lot of Japanese people were angry about these kinds of reports.

Today, I suddenly remembered the story above, then I was wondering why Ichiro was criticized, remembering the following story.

About a year ago, a Mongolian Sumo wrestler in the highest rank (横綱/Yokozuna), Asashoryu / 朝青龍, was finally forced to retire. Traditionally, Sumo wrestlers in the highest rank are required to become good wrestlers who can be respected by wrestlers in lower ranks, and they are expected to make social contributions. Despite that, Asashoryu frequently broke the rules. Then, a scandal eventually forced him to retire from Sumo, even though he was still strong and very popular among Japanese people. When it was reported in Mongolia, a lot of Mongolians criticized the Sumo Association, saying that Japanese people and the Sumo Association discriminated against Mongolian wrestlers.

After Asashoryu retired, another Mongolian wrestler in the highest rank, Hakuho/白鵬 was expected to play a leading role. So far, he has been doing well and seems to be respected by both common people and even very well-known retired Sumo wrestlers, even though the Sumo Association has been having difficulty dealing with serious problems in the past year. His words and behaviors/actions are often impressive and moving, making people feel that he really loves Sumo and that he knows what to do. It's said that he always studies the history of Sumo, Japanese culture and things like that.

These days, Sumo, the national sport of Japan, is supported by many wrestlers from foreign countries. because of this, Japanese people want Japanese Sumo wrestlers to do better. Likewise, Americans might want American baseball players to accomplish great feats in MLB. I think that these kinds of feelings is natural. I hope that Ichiro will catch the hearts and minds of more Americans like the Mongolian Sumo wrestler, Hakuho, does.