Sumo Walks tightrope With First Overseas Events In 20 Years

Tokyo, (APP – UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News – 24th Jan, 2025) Sumo is walking a “tightrope” as it prepares to stage events outside Japan for the first time in 20 years while also trying to preserve its ancient traditions, experts say.

The sport will hold exhibition tournaments in London this October and in Paris in June next year, the first time the Japan Sumo Association has been abroad since Las Vegas in 2005.

sports such as football, baseball and American football play domestic games overseas in a bid to gain new fans in emerging markets.

John Gunning, a former amateur sumo wrestler who commentates on the sport in English on Japanese television, says its centuries-old history and traditions make it unique.

“It’s always a tightrope,” he told AFP.

“If you start turning sumo into just a pure sport, you start losing a lot of the things that make it attractive or the whole reason that it exists in the first place.

“There’s always the push and pull that sumo wants to continue the traditions but also try and keep adjusting and fitting into a 21st century sporting and business landscape.”

Japan Sumo Association chairman Hakkaku, who goes by one name, has said it is “important to show our sport to the world”, telling reporters that “our traditional culture has been recognised”.

European promoters appear keen to make overseas events a regular fixture.

David Rothschild, promoter and executive producer for Paris event organisers AEG, said “the idea would be to have sumo going to one country or another in the world once per year”.