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If You’re Gonna Call in Sick, Make Sure It’s Legit
Yokozuna Asashoryu was suspended from work and docked some pay due to his having played hooky this month. 
Any foreigner who has lived and worked in Japan knows that the Japanese are very strict in requiring that all employees have very good reasons for skipping out on work. This applies to Sumo wrestlers as well, especially foreign ones who may or may not have a healthy respect for the famous Japanese work ethic.
From the Mainichi Shimbun:
Yokozuna Asashoryu suspended for playing soccer
The Japan Sumo Association (JSA) on Wednesday suspended Yokozuna Asashoryu for two upcoming tournaments after he played in a charity soccer game in Mongolia despite having sat out a regional sumo tour in Japan after claiming to be injured.
The JSA also cut the salaries of Asashoryu and Takasago, his stablemaster, by 30 percent for four months.
After winning the Nagoya tournament, Asashoryu told the JSA on July 25 that he would not take part in the summer sumo tour, submitting a doctor’s certificate that said his injuries, including a fractured lower back and a damaged ligament, needed some six weeks to heal.
But Asashoryu played in a soccer game in his homeland, prompting JSA officials to criticize him for pulling out of the summer tour.
It is for the first time in the ancient sport that a yokozuna has been suspended from tournaments. (Mainichi)
Click here for the original Japanese story
August 1, 2007
Filed under: Japan - variety, News-Japan
Yes, i had a good chuckle when i saw that on the news. But i thought they should cut him some slack. He probably just felt like having a holiday at home.
I do feel like they’re being a little too hard on him, but he doesn’t seem to be too apologetic. When I saw the video of him playing soccer, I couldn’t help but think “Here’s a guy playing hooky.” I mean, he was really flopping around out there. If he would just bow his head and apologize profusely the way it’s done here, especially with respect to traditional things, he might be forgiven to some degree and some of the restrictions might be lifted. Who knows, though?
This issue is more complicated than it appears, particularly from the viewpoint of those who don’t understand the way sumo works.
The bar is set very high for yokozuna compared to wrestlers of other ranks because a yokozuna cannot be demoted for a losing record in a tournament as anyone of the ozeki rank or lower can. A losing yokozuna must retire from sumo wrestling completely, so it’s not uncommon for yokozuna to “call in sick” as it were rather than face a tournament in which they have a good chance of having a losing record (7 wins or fewer is a losing record).
It also means a yokozuna may choose not to participate because of relatively mild injuries of the sort which wouldn’t be aggravated by something like playing soccer (which is a no impact sport) but could be severely exacerbated in sumo where they essentially fall on cement when they go down.
The Sumo Kyokai knows he wasn’t capable of participating in sumo matches and keeping his yokozuna status while still being able to play soccer. Wrestlers on the mend frequently undergo physical therapy more strenuous than an exhibition soccer match. They suspended him for being so public about it. It’s a huge slap on the wrist for the bad publicity he brought to the sport and the way it makes it appear as if he will honor his obligations to a foreign audience of his fans but not a Japanese one, not a spank on the behind for “playing hooky” or failing to have a Japanese work ethic.
Thanks for pointing that out to those of us who don’t understand the way sumo works and are not able to see how complicated things really are.
Shari,
Your mission, if you choose to accept it, is to look up the word ‘facetious’ in your dictionary of choice.
Sorry, your total lack of insight or even the barest hint of depth of understanding of the situation in your post misled me into thinking your didn’t know what you were talking about.
I can’t say that your snarky response to me has persuaded me otherwise but I’m sure you feel a little less embarrassed now that you’ve tried to cover up your lack of knowledge by acting like I’m the one who didn’t know what was going on. :-p
Wow, Shari. Are you going to be my first troll? I’ve always wanted one, you know.
Feel free to drop by anytime.
And, I don’t claim to be an expert on every subject contained within my posts.
If I were such an expert, I’d be….let’s see… uh…., you.
Hmm..interesting. I was reading something in the paper about it today actually and they said that the reason why he didn’t want to play in the Sumo match and went to Mongolia instead is because he’s suffering mild depression. Whether that’s true or not, i don’t know. I’ve suffered depression myself so i can see why he’d want to go home if he was feeling that way.
Maybe he’s just a regular gaijin like us, he sometimes gets sick of all those Japanese rules!
Maybe so. Haha.
Has he even made any kind of statement to the media yet? I saw on TV where reporters tried to question him at the airport. He looked defiant and they were a bit rough in the way they put their questions to him; par for the course, I know.
Do you think he’ll apologize in front of the media sometime soon?
Shari,
How do you think this situation will evolve from here?
I think Shari’s taken the hump. haha
Hello,
I am just an American, who is a foreingner, living in the U.S.A. My fellow commrads scare me to death. I must find a way out. My plan of escape will commence tonight, at 0800 hours.
The hour draws near, I must make myself a white russian. Oh no, I can hear them coming for me, I can see the red and purple haze decending upon me, choking the very life out of me…relentless in their attack.
More to come…stay tuned for episode 1, part 2 of the highly acclaimed, “The Lombardo Identity” (formerly known as “Operation: Bring Back The Dodo-Bird”
In theaters May 2008 There’s no raison de etre
Uh-oh. Somebody’s armed with a six-pack and internet service.
What’s even scarier, there is no alcohol involved!
Hey man, why even have an avatar if no one can see it? What’s the point? Oh, just got a tip from my bro-in-law regarding web browsers. He said to go with Firefox, very stable and safe open-source browser. Just keep IE around, cause some websites and programs are designed to only work with IE.
Not sure about the avatar comment, but Firefox is great. I use it myself.
By the way, your avatar is pretty scary, man.
Also, your name in your comments ’screamingndigital’ should be a direct link to your web page. Might want to go into wordpress and tweak your settings.
Man, my wordpress blog page is more difficult to navigate and figure out than building a web page from scratch (which I’ve done)!
Oh ya, the avatar comment was meant as a in-general reference…avatars are way too small for anyone too enjoy!?!?