The end of a sad saga for sumo has hopefully come to a close. Time will tell if this will leave a permanent mark on sumo's face. Please no Roho jokes.
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The first column is page views (I would guess) so that's from 661 thousand page...There was a similar case two years ago when a police sergeant drove to work drunk,...Takes one to know one....I don't know what they're called, but you put them in your boots to make them stand...And here's that follow-up post:
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The media coverage of this has been way overboard. So what happens now? They're out of sumo, but what else? Do they get fined, jail time, or deported?
Oops, I soc'd the Japan Probe article on this...sorry Jordan. It is prompting an interesting discussion on whether the media is going overboard and drug laws in Japan.
No worries. I was watching some shows at my dorm and saw the news. I ran right up stairs and starting writing. Haha. James is spot on about this.
I've got to agree with Nick; the coverage is overboard. I mean, I understand that Sumo is a traditional sport and all, but... it is just a sport. I haven't really thought of the excessive coverage as being foreign-biased, but...
This is the same thing that happened when Asashoryu was caught playing soccer when he should've been resting due to a claimed injury. The normally unwatchable news was sickening at that time.
And the same lame comments by the commentators... "Why don't foreigners apologize and admit their mistakes?" or "Shoganai, foreign rikishi just don't hold themselves to the same standards as Japanese rikishi do.
I have noticed that the mass media in Japan loves to beat up on foreigners at every turn. This kind of `journalism` only prevents the culture from evolving. Even in Japan the plague of the `professional journalist` bring shame to the profession. I remember back in my college days my journalism professor told us all from day one that if any of us sold out and became a `professional journalist` he would hunt us down and beat us with a club. The man is dead now but I do fear his ghost.
Targeting foreigners crossed my mind too. So, no Japanese sumo wrestlers smoke pot? None inhaled secondhand marijuana smoke? Why not test all of the wrestlers from the two stables? I wonder how many would turn up positive for THC.
They tested all the wrestlers in the top two divisions.
I think you may be assuming that marijuana use is as common in Japan as it is in the country you came from. It's not.