Free Republic

The Japan Sumo Association is preparing to host Donald Trump at an upcoming tournament after learning the U.S. President wants to watch a live sumo bout during his visit to Japan at the end of May, a source with the organization said Friday. The sport’s organizing body has reserved seats for Trump on May 26, the final day of the Summer Grand Sumo Tournament in Tokyo, and has been considering its security measures since March, the source said. Trump and his aides have requested box seats located near the first three rows at Tokyo’s Ryogoku Kokugikan during his visit, which...

More than 100 Japanese babies faced off Sunday (May 14) in a traditional "crying sumo" ring, an annual ceremony believed to bring infants good health. In the sumo ring at the precinct of the Kamegaike Hachimangu shrine in Sagamihara west of Tokyo, two hulking wrestlers held up toddlers wearing tiny sumo belts and aprons to try to make them bawl. Wrestlers sometimes shake the babies gently to encourage tears.

Tokyo (AFP) -- Japan's giant sumo wrestlers lack the mean streak needed to repel the flood of foreigners who have dominated the roly-poly sport in recent years, according to the country's first homegrown champion in a decade. Kotoshogiku, who last month ended an excruciating wait for a Japanese-born winner, said Tuesday it was no accident that Mongolians had taken over Japan's ancient sport over the past decade and a half. "All the Japanese wrestlers want to win championships," the 32-year-old told a news conference. "We eat the same meat and vegetables as them," he added. "But sumo is about winning....

For years, promoters of sumo have been pushing for the sport’s inclusion in the Olympic Games. To get there, the International Sumo Federation has thrown its weight behind a form of the game that would offend purists and surprise most everyone else: women’s sumo. When the International Olympic Committee declared in 1994 that single-sex sports could no longer qualify as candidates for the Games, that was enough to turn tradition that featured giant men with topknots shoving each other in a ring on its head. Since then, sumo has been coming into its own internationally as an equal opportunity sport....

TOKYO -- Former sumo wrestler Konishiki appears with Chie Iijima, for a press conference to announce their marriage at a Tokyo hotel after Konishiki registered his marriage to the 28-year- old former medical worker Jan. 7. The 600-pound Konishiki, a native of Hawaii, who was the first foreign-born sumo wrestler to attain the second-highest rank of ozeki, has taken up a career as a TV celebrity in Japan since retiring from sumo in 1997. (01/12/04 AP photo)

You thought they were deciding the future of Europe. Turns out, Gerhard Schroeder and Jacques Chirac may be talking about Japanese sumo wrestling. Whenever the leaders of EU heavyweights Germany and France meet these days, they discuss a new shared passion for the ancient sport, Schroeder's wife said on Sunday, revealing that the chancellor has taken up watching sumo on television. "He doesn't like watching just football but recently took up a real interest in sumo wrestling," Doris Schroeder-Koepf told German television. "The French president is a real expert on sumo," she noted, referring to Chirac's longstanding interest in Japanese...