Wakanohou arrested for drug possession

[mokele 3]

When I was a teenager I used to smoke marijuana sometimes on the weekends with friends. We would listen to rock music and "get stoned". I quit using it many years ago, but I still regard it as a basically harmless activity unless done in excess. It's certainly not any worse than getting drunk on alcohol. In any case marijuana is not a performance enhancing drug. On the contrary it makes the user a bit passive and dreamy, not conducive to the needs of a sumo wrestler who needs to be aggressive and forceful. It's really a shame that Wakanoho has been expelled from sumo over this incident. He had good fighting spirit and enthusiasm.

Roho and Hakurozan are gone as well, and that's rather a shame too. Roho was a bit surly and occasionally unsportsmanlike and his style was slow, unskilled and he backed up and dodged to the side too much, but he was physically very strong. His brother Hakurozan was not as strong but was a fairly good belt man, although he had trouble keeping his hips low enough to be effective.

It hurts sumo when gaijin rikishi are expelled like this, even if marijuana use is regarded as such a heinous activity in Japan. You get the impression that the Kyokai is being harsh in part because they were foreigners. Major sports figures in the USA have traditionally been allowed to attend a drug rehabilitation program when they have been caught abusing drugs. If they behave themselves and pass through the rehab program, they are allowed to return to the sport they played. It's too bad that the Kyokai has not joined the modern world in this respect and done something similar.

[Jakusotsu 6,399]

It's too bad that the Kyokai has not joined the modern world in this respect and done something similar.

You're a little bit beside the point. None of them was dismissed outright because of smoking weed. Wakanoho got the boot (prematurley perhaps) because of his imminent imprisonment, and the brothers kept on lying to their oyakata.

[Jonosuke 28]

It hurts sumo when gaijin rikishi are expelled like this, even if marijuana use is regarded as such a heinous activity in Japan. You get the impression that the Kyokai is being harsh in part because they were foreigners. Major sports figures in the USA have traditionally been allowed to attend a drug rehabilitation program when they have been caught abusing drugs. If they behave themselves and pass through the rehab program, they are allowed to return to the sport they played. It's too bad that the Kyokai has not joined the modern world in this respect and done something similar.

First we've been rehashing (no pun intended) this point forever now about the modern world. Whether allowing any drug to be accepted to be used is a sign of the modern world or not, the Kyokai as an organization decided to follow the law of land. Despite the fact Wakanoho was released at the end does not alter the fact that he was charged and arrested.

There is a difference between you smoking as a teenager or going to school and smoking while you are working for a company or business. On major corporations where they may ask you to sign a work contract, if you are found to break a law, you are subject to dismissal. In some companies even casually using Internet to view certain sites may be against their corporate policy. Organizations and corporations do have their rules and require to adhere to certain conduct. If you break them, well you are on your own.

It hurts sumo when any rikishi, gaikokujin or not, are charged by police. The Kyokai like any other business must think about their customers as well. There is a significant segment of their supporters and fans who consider such use to be unforgivable sin. They have grandparents, parents who consider such an act to be a bad influence to their kids if the Kyokai accepted them as a norm.

Even in the U.S. athletes who were arrested by police may lose their corporate sponsorships and as far as I know, there aren't that much hues and cries over their losing such sponsorships as most think they deserved them.

Edited October 6, 2008 by Jonosuke

[Takemikazuchi 0]

Let me get this straight-- Wakanoho is going to be kicked out of sumo because of ONE SPLIFF found in a lost wallet??? What an absolute joke. What harm has he done to anyone? Absolutely nothing. And his career is over; just like that? What a disgrace. Toyozakura beats a junior around the head with a ladle and gets a paycut for a couple of months, and Wakanoho is expelled??? Can't someone in the Kyokai appply just a bit of common sense? This is a 20 year old kid we're talking about. This really is a tragedy, a complete waste of a promising career.

a demonstration of no understanding or willingness to understand - and then respect - another nation's drug laws.

Because London is a crime haven, knives, dope everywhere and the like - doesn't mean everywhere else has to be. Last time I was in London - 9 years ago now - I was off the plane half an hour before being asked if I was 'looking for something'

Look at the part I have underlined and aks yourself if you'd think the same way had a doped up 195cm lad given you a pounding - after (only) ONE SPLIFF

Well thank you for your totally irrelevant and unjustified attack on the city in which I live! I stand by my statement. He has done no harm to anyone. Have you no sympathy for his predicament at all?

As You live in England, You probably have noticed what all the yobs are doing there.. Now, in Wakanohou's case, he is an example for the youth, someone who to follow, who gives You ways for life and if he shows that a spliff now and then is what goes around in his life, then he is a very very bad example for youngsters (as they pick up anything what their idols do).

And for the law, not knowing it doesn't excuse anybody.

[Sasanishiki 57]

In all honesty, I doubt the rikishi can really be called role models for Japan's youth. Most Japanese youth know or care little about ozumo and probably could not name more than a handful of maegashira (before this case).

[Jonosuke 28]

I don't think they are never considered to be role models for kids but remember the Kyokai is under the jurisdiction of Ministry of Education and in any given day you will see many kindergarten or elementary school kids in the stand on their school trip. It certainly doesn't look good for them if they are seen to be condoning such an activity as pot smoking.

Edited October 7, 2008 by Jonosuke

[Peterao 3]

Going back to this old post for a minute...

Let me get this straight-- Wakanoho is going to be kicked out of sumo because of ONE SPLIFF found in a lost wallet??? What an absolute joke. What harm has he done to anyone? Absolutely nothing. And his career is over; just like that? What a disgrace. Toyozakura beats a junior around the head with a ladle and gets a paycut for a couple of months, and Wakanoho is expelled??? Can't someone in the Kyokai appply just a bit of common sense? This is a 20 year old kid we're talking about. This really is a tragedy, a complete waste of a promising career.

a demonstration of no understanding or willingness to understand - and then respect - another nation's drug laws.

Because London is a crime haven, knives, dope everywhere and the like - doesn't mean everywhere else has to be. Last time I was in London - 9 years ago now - I was off the plane half an hour before being asked if I was 'looking for something'

Look at the part I have underlined and aks yourself if you'd think the same way had a doped up 195cm lad given you a pounding - after (only) ONE SPLIFF

Well thank you for your totally irrelevant and unjustified attack on the city in which I live! I stand by my statement. He has done no harm to anyone. Have you no sympathy for his predicament at all?

One question: how do you know that he's done no harm to anyone?

Do you know how long he's been smoking marijuana? Do you know if he's ever been high on the dohyo? Or during keiko? Was anybody ever injured by Wakanoho during that timeframe?

If this were America, and someone had been injured by this guy in the past, I'm positive there would be a lawsuit linking this to some sort of reckless endangerment.

[Chiyozakura 163]

One question: how do you know that he's done no harm to anyone?

What about the tsukebito that had to clean the mawashi he wore the day he apparently crapped himself at keiko? (Blinking...)