TOKYO: A former sumo wrestler who is suing the sport’s governing body in Japan after he was allegedly forced to retire for refusing to fight during the Covid-19 pandemic, said Monday he had gone public in hopes of changing the secretive sport’s culture.

Daisuke Yanagihara, 25, said he told his master in January 2021 that he was reluctant to participate in a Tokyo tournament due to surging coronavirus infections in the capital.

Yanagihara, who began wrestling when he was 15, said he had undergone heart surgery a few years earlier and was worried about the risks to his health if he got sick.

He said his master and the Japan Sumo Association gave him two options: fight or quit.

“I was desperate,” Yanagihara told a press conference on Monday. His lawyers said a wrestler had died of Covid-19 in May 2020.

Yanagihara said he felt he had “no other choice” but to leave the sport because he did not want to risk being a burden to his mother if he were hospitalised.

He filed a civil suit in March against his former master and the association, seeking 4.12 million yen ($29,000) in compensation.

Yanagihara also alleged that lower-ranked wrestlers like himself were often forced to eat rotten meat and dirt during their training.

He said in 2013, an older wrestler repeatedly slapped him with a traditional flip-flop that contained metal.

“By sharing my experience, I want to reveal the actual state of this world which has been shrouded in mystery in the name of traditional culture,” he said.

The Japan Sumo Association declined to comment when contacted by AFP on Monday.

The ancient sport of sumo has been tarnished by a series of scandals in recent years — from allegations of bout-fixing and the involvement of organised crime to drug arrests and severe bullying, the most serious case resulting in the death of a teenage wrestler in 2007.

But it is still rare for a current or former wrestler to publicly criticise the sport or take legal action.

AFP