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PaperclipPerfector  5mo ago (text post)   1636 thread views

Friday Fun Thread for August 1, 2025

Be advised: this thread is not for serious in-depth discussion of weighty topics (we have a link for that), this thread is not for anything Culture War related. This thread is for Fun. You got jokes? Share 'em. You got silly questions? Ask 'em.

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In sumo, can steroids give you an edge? Does anyone do steroids? Any scandals?

The Freakonomics guys were insistent that at least during the era they were doing their data collection there were (to them) clear cases of fraud (in this case match throwing). A sumotori must have a winning record to avoid demotion, which means 8/15 by the final day at least. It is my understanding that they analyzed many bouts and cases where wrestlers just happened to win on days when it was do or die were statistically improbable unless something was awry. Combine this with the reality that it's man-to-man, and no one can get inside the head of either wrestler, and matches can be over in a few seconds. I personally suspect it's happened, but isn't commonplace, particularly now.

There's currently an ethnically Japanese yokozuna (the highest rank) which has been rare since the Takanohana days (lots of Mongolian or Pacific Islander guys) and that generates local interest. Though alas, young people are often disinterested in this traditional sport and focus more on soccer, volleyball, basketball, or even judo. It doesn't help that not just any kid can do sumo or even play around at it. You have to be big, and the professional guys are packing away food and booze in impressive proportions.

There are other more culture warry scandals but this isn't the thread for it.

edit: typos

I'm sure random kids can't do professional sumo, but several decades back, I was convincing my buddies to let me draw a circle in the dirt with stick and then to shove each other till one of us lost our footing or fell out haha.

I would be very interested in reading a longer post about Sumo if you wrote it. Or if you know of any blog posts that talk about it in general.

There are a few of non-Japanese guys in the top league now - Mongolians of course, but also one Kazakh, one Russian (actually Buryat but he says he identifies as Russian so...) and two Ukrainians. One of them is going down to lower league soon (maybe he will be back) but another has a decent chance of becoming an Ozeki if he keeps fighting like he does. So if somebody is upset by non-Japanese getting in (I have no idea but I assume some people would) their battle is pretty much lost by now.

As for scandals, I'm sure Japanese are human so they may have their own share. There were Yokozunas retired because of bad behavior. And maybe somebody fixes matches too - but even in my short period of watching I've seen a lot of unexpected wins and upsets (including the last basho, where I haven't seen a single person who could predict the result even mid-way) so even if someone would play dirty, it'd likely be hard to notice because of how it's inherently unpredictable anyway. Statistics can only get you so far.

AFAIK the number of places for non-ethnically-Japanese is capped at 10% to maintain the character of the sport.

I don't know of any outcry of anyone "upset" as such, because many of the yokozuna of the past have been not-fully-Japanese, but I think after such a spell of Mongolian powerhouses (Asashoryu, Hakuho, Harumafuji, Kakuryu, Terunofuji, etc.) having a Japanese yokozuna brings in fans who like to root for a wrestler who is fully Japanese (though he sucked this last basho as I'm sure you are aware).

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