Sumo wrestling must end discrimination, says Japanese mayor leading fight against men-only rules
Sumo is closely interlinked with Shinto, which considers women to be ritually unclean, meaning they are barred from stepping into the ring
A female mayor at the centre of a fierce debate over allowing women into the sumo ring vowed on Thursday never to back down as she prepared to lodge a formal protest.
“I won’t give up this time around … I’m determined to make a petition every six months,” Tomoko Nakagawa said before taking her case to the sumo authorities in Tokyo.
“I want them never to leave this issue vague. I want the association to hear this voice clearly and start a debate on a review” of the practice of not allowing women into the sumo ring.
The issue hit the headlines nationally and internationally when women, including at least one nurse, were shooed out of a sumo ring as they tried to help a man during a medical emergency.
In footage that was widely broadcast on national news bulletins, several women rushed into the ring in Maizuru, northwest of Kyoto, after a local mayor collapsed while giving a speech. But as the women attempted to help the mayor, multiple announcements were made over loudspeakers asking them to leave the ring.
The rings where sumo is practised, known as sumo dohyo, are seen as sacred places in the native Shinto faith.