NHK not to broadcast Nagoya sumo meet live due to gambling scandal

TOKYO, July 6 Kyodo -
Public broadcaster NHK will not televise the July 11 to 25 Nagoya Grand Sumo
Tournament live due to a gambling scandal that has hit a number of sumo
wrestlers and elders, NHK Chairman Shigeo Fukuchi said Tuesday.
Fukuchi said NHK decided not to broadcast the sumo tournament to be held at
Aichi Prefectural Gymnasium live, but, instead, to air the digest version of
recorded sumo matches on TV and report the results of the matches on radio.
It is first time for NHK, officially named Japan Broadcasting Corp., not to air
a whole sumo tournament live on television in its history of broadcasting of
sumo tourneys which started in 1953. The public broadcaster started airing the
events on radio in 1928.
Fukuchi said the broadcaster's decision reflects viewers' severe opinions on
the gambling scandal rocking the ancient national sport. The sumo association
decided Sunday to fire ozeki Kotomitsuki and stablemaster Otake and to impose
other punishments on wrestlers and elders for being involved in gambling on
professional baseball games which is alleged to be a funding source for
gangsters.
''We have received a number of severe opinions from viewers,'' Fukuchi said at
a press conference. ''We have made a comprehensive and careful decision.''
Fukuchi later appeared on NHK and said, ''NHK strongly requests that the Japan
Sumo Association work on reforms promptly, with a sense of tension that it is
in the midst of a once-in-a-century crisis.''
More than 60 percent of those who contacted NHK on the gambling scandal by
Tuesday said they wanted it to cancel coverage of the tournament, according to
NHK, which is funded by fees collected from the general public.
Acting JSA Chairman Hiroyoshi Murayama and other officials of the sumo
governing body visited NHK's headquarters in Tokyo's Shibuya Ward on Tuesday
and asked the public broadcaster to show the upcoming sumo tournament on
television.
At a meeting with the NHK chairman, the officials from the sumo association
explained the body's decision to fire the high-ranking sumo wrestler and the
stablemaster, as well as measures it plans to implement to prevent a recurrence
of the situation.
NHK made the decision not to air the event live after hearing what the JSA
officials had to say.
Commercial TV stations used to air the digest of sumo tournaments in the past,
but currently, NHK is the only broadcaster that airs the sumo events live.
NHK's Fukuchi said at the press conference that the broadcaster intends to
cancel its sumo coverage ''just for this tournament'' as it expects the sumo
association to promote reform of the national sport.
Prior to the meeting between NHK and the sumo association, sports minister
Tatsuo Kawabata urged Murayama and other sumo officials in a separate meeting
Tuesday to sever ties with mobsters to prevent a recurrence of the gambling,
and to set up an independent committee aimed at promoting reform as quickly as
possible.
Kawabata told reporters after the talks, ''The most important issue (for the
association) is to completely sever ties with anti-society groups.''
''So I'm asking them to hold discussions intended to eradicate the roots of the
connections'' between the JSA and organized crimes, he added.
The sumo association said it plans to set up the committee before the Nagoya
Grand Sumo Tournament ends.
==Kyodo