Yakuza Scandal Hits Sumo

Zach Anrold picked up on an interesting story from the Mainichi Daily News that a couple sumo coaches have been implicated for selling special ringside tournament seats to the yakuza (Japanese mafia).

Two sumo coaches participated in selling special ringside seats to senior yakuza gang members affiliated with the Yamaguchi-gumi crime syndicate at last year's July Grand Tournament in Nagoya, a source with the Japan Sumo Association (JSA) has revealed to the Mainichi.

The JSA questioned the two coaches after receiving an inquiry from police, and will consider disciplinary action against the coaches at a board of directors meeting opening Thursday. The two have also been given an opportunity to provide an explanation.

According to police, some 50 senior members of yakuza gangs affiliated with the Kodokai -- the Nagoya branch of the Yamaguchi-gumi -- attended the 15-day Nagoya tournament using the seats. Different gang members used the seats on different days.

And as Zach points out:

It’s something that has also been commonplace in the Japanese fight game for a long, long time. It was a critical part to the storyline about the yakuza scandal that destroyed PRIDE. Seiya Kawamata, who was the yakuza fixer that took care of gangsters at MMA events, claimed that he was ordered to take gangsters from front row seating and put them backstage into VIP rooms. This activity, according to Kawamata, allegedly occurred during the days when PRIDE & K-1 were co-promoting with each other.

Remember when former gangster Hiromichi Momose used to be at ringside for all the PRIDE events and after every fight the winner would go to him at ringside and shake his hand? (He was the one in a black ball cap and black glasses).

The idea of “yakuza special seating” at fighting events is nothing new. It’s why when you saw ticket prices for ring side seats go for 30,000Y and “royal ringside seats” go for 100,000Y a pop that there was always some snickering about the VIP seating.

The more things change, the more they stay the same in the Japanese fight game.