Wakeup Call: Your Japanese sports update … rugby tsunami taunting, sumo golf club beatings

Oct 19, 2011, 9:00 AM EDT

A sumo wrestler trains during a summer camp at their freshly rebuilt stable in Soma in Fukushima prefecture, northern Japan

Two things that won’t be tolerated in Japanese sports: tsunami taunting and naughty sumo wrestlers. A Japanese rugby team was shut down for an entire month and will forfeit four games after one of its players taunted a member of another team which had been affected by the March 11 tsunami and earthquake. That taunt?

In a match against the Kamaishi Seawaves on Sept 25, a player from Yokogawa reportedly said during an argument with a Kamaishi player “Has the quake made you guys crazy?”

The team issued a formal apology (sincere bows, I hope). Meanwhile, there was trouble in the Japan Sumo Association:

A sumo stablemaster has been warned by the Japan Sumo Association for beating three of his wrestlers with a golf club.

Stablemaster Kasugano visited the JSA after it was revealed he hit three of his wrestlers for ignoring his instructions to wear kimonos when going out in public.

That’s it, I’m taking my kid out of youth sumo.

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