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Agence France-Presse

When Japanese sumo wrestler Takuya Saito retired from the sport at 32 and began job-hunting, he had no professional experience and didn’t even know how to use a computer.
Athletes in many sports can struggle to reinvent themselves after retirement, but the challenge is particularly acute for those in the ancient world of sumo.
Wrestlers are often recruited early, sometimes as young as 15, and their formal education ends when they move into the communal stables where they live and train.
That can leave them in for a rude awakening when their topknots are sheared in the ritual that marks their retirement.

When Saito left sumo, he considered becoming a baker, inspired by one of his favourite cartoons.
“But when I tried it out, they told me I was too big” for the kitchen space, says the 40-year-old, who weighed in at 165kg (26 stone) during his career. “I had several job interviews, but I didn’t have any experience … they rejected me everywhere.”
Why Mongolians dominate sumo, Japan’s national sport
Professional sumo wrestlers, or rikishi, who rise to the top of the sport can open their own stables, but that’s not an option for most.
Last year, of 89 professional wrestlers who retired, just seven remained in the sumo world.
For the others, the restaurant industry sometimes appeals, offering a chance to use the experience gained cooking large meals for their stablemates.

Others become masseurs after years of dealing with aching muscles, or leverage their heft to become security guards.
But trying to start over when non-sumo peers can be a decade or more into a career track is often demoralising.
Saito says he developed an “inferiority complex” and found the experience of job-hunting far harsher than the tough discipline of his life as a rikishi.


“In sumo, the stable master was always there to protect us,” he says, adding that his former stable master offered him a place to stay, meals and clothes until his found his feet.
Many wrestlers leave the sport with little or no savings, because salaries are only paid to the 10 per cent of rikishi in the sport’s two top divisions. Lower-ranking wrestlers get nothing but room, board and tournament expenses.
Saito wanted to be his own boss and decided to become an administrative scrivener, a legal professional who can prepare official document and provide legal advice.

The qualifying exam is notoriously tough, and when Saito passed he opted to specialise in procedures related to restaurants, hoping to help other former wrestlers.
His first client was Tomohiko Yamaguchi, a friend in the restaurant industry with an amateur sumo background.
“The sumo world is unique and I think that outsiders can’t understand it,” says Yamaguchi, suggesting society can sometimes prejudge rikishi.

Wrestlers who go from being stopped for photos and showered with gifts can also struggle with fading into obscurity.
A rare few may end up with television gigs that keep them in the public eye, but for most, the limelight moves on.
Keisuke Kamikawa joined the sumo world at 15, “before even graduating high school, without any experience of adult life in the outside world”, he says.
Chanko nabe: the Japanese hotpot loved by sumo wrestlers
Today, the 44-year-old heads SumoPro, a talent agency for former wrestlers that helps with casting and other appearances, but also runs two day centres for the elderly, staffed in part by retired rikishi.
“It’s a completely different world from sumo, but rikishi are used to being considerate and caring” because lower-ranked wrestlers serve those in the upper echelons, explains Kamikawa.
Shuji Nakaita, a former wrestler now working at one of Kamikawa’s care centres, spent years helping famed sumo champion Terunofuji.

“I prepared his meals, I scrubbed his back in the bath … there are similarities with care of the elderly,” he says after a game of cards with two visitors to the centre.
And while the sight of hulking former rikishi around diminutive elderly men and women might appear incongruous, the retired wrestlers are popular.
“They are very strong, very reassuring and gentle,” Mitsutoshi Ito, a 70-year-old who says he enjoys the chance to chat about sumo with former wrestlers.
Kamikawa has also set up a group that provides advice on post-sumo careers to wrestlers and families worried their sons are not planning for their future.
“Sumo is a world where you have to be ready to put your life in danger to win a fight,” says Hideo Ito, an acupuncturist who has worked with rikishi for over two decades.
“For these wrestlers who are giving it their all, thinking about the future can seem like a weakness in their armour.”


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Japan

Sumo wrestlers struggle for work and relevance when they step away from the sport

Keisuke Kamikawa is a retired sumo wrestler and the owner of the Hanasaki daycare centre. Life after sumo can be tough for retired wrestlers. Photo: AFP

Former wrestler Kamikawa runs two day centres for the elderly, staffed in part by retired rikishi. Photo: AFP

Kamikawa (back) eating lunch with his family in Tokyo. Photo: AFP

Retired sumo wrestler Takuya Saito decided to become a legal professional after leaving the sport. Photo: AFP

Retired sumo wrestler Hiromi Yamada taking care of an elderly woman at a day care centre in Tokyo. Photo: AFP

Yamada (right) working out with an elderly woman at a day care centre in Tokyo. Photo: AFP

Why retired Hong Kong professional women’s rugby player wants more girls to play the sport

The HSBC Try Rugby Programme aims to introduce the sport to students of all abilities and genders by incorporating rugby into the PE curriculum of more schools.

Former Hong Kong professional rugby player Lai Pou-fan says starting to play rugby at the age of 17 opened up a world of opportunities for her as a career and lifelong passion.

The HSBC Try Rugby Programme provides teachers with rugby knowledge so they can teach the sport at Hong Kong primary and secondary schools.

More than 55,000 children in Hong Kong have been introduced to rugby and more than 470 teachers have attended coaching clinics since the launch of the HSBC Try Rugby Programme in 2017.

HSBC

A Japanese sumo-wrestling champion walks into a Tamil film. Hilarity ensues

Sumo is set to be released in India on January 15, 2020. Photo: Handout

Tashiro with his family. Photo: Instagram

Filmmaker Hosimin with wrestler Tashiro. Photo: Handout

A still from the film. Photo: Handout

Forget Mulan: meet Khutulun, Mongolia’s undefeated wrestling princess, Genghis Khan’s great-great-granddaughter and Turandot inspiration

A steel engraving of Chinese princess Turandot by Georges François Louis Jaquemot, after a drawing by Arthur von Ramberg, in 1859. Photo: Wikimedia Commons

Stop humiliation, violence for cheap laughs, Japan TV watchdog tells comedy shows

Flowers at a Tokyo location used for Netflix reality show Terrace House in May 2020, for cast member Hana Kimura. The 22-year-old female professional wrestler took her own life after being bullied online. File photo: Kyodo

Flowers at a Tokyo location used to film Netflix reality show Terrace House in May 2020. Hana Kimura, a 22-year-old female professional wrestler,  among the show’s cast, died after being bullied online. Photo: Kyodo

The late wrestler Hana Kimura, weeks before her death following online bullying. Photo: Getty Images

An upset girl sits at her computer amid cyberbullying. Image: Shutterstock

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Athletes in many sports can struggle to reinvent themselves after retirement, and the challenge is particularly tough for sumo wrestlers in Japan
Many leave with little education or savings and their size can be a disadvantage. Former wrestlers who retired earlier help get some of them back on their feet



Life away from the sport can be tough for retired wrestlers in Japan, who often have little formal education or savings – but they can count on fellow athletes stepping in to help them get back on their feet.


Wrestling