| Sep 02 | Sumo: 'Devil of the Dohyo' Wakanohana dies (Japan Times) |
 The original former yokozuna Wakanohana, whose nickname in the ring was the "Devil of the Dohyo," died Wednesday evening of kidney cancer at a Tokyo hospital, the Japan Sumo Association said. He was 82. Wakanohana, a former JSA chairman whose real name was Katsuji Hanada, lived the second longest of all yokozuna after the first Umegatani, who passed away at the age of 83.
Hanada was the elder brother of former stablemaster Futagoyama (former ozeki Takanohana) who died in May 2005, and uncle to former yokozuna brothers Wakanohana and Takanohana.
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| Aug 31 | Baseball: Google Japan begins offering free MLB games through YouTube (Mainichi) |
| Internet search giant Google Inc.'s Japan branch is now offering free unedited videos of all Major League Baseball games recorded since 2009 through YouTube. YouTube, a Google subsidiary, signed an agreement with MLB Advanced Media L.P., which oversees all Internet broadcasts of Major League games, to make all games available for viewing within 36 hours of the last out. |
| Aug 31 | Sumo chief pledges no mobsters (Japan Times) |
| Japan Sumo Association Chairman Hanaregoma pledged in an official declaration Monday to permanently keep mobsters out of sumo. "We will not allow gangsters at any sumo-related events, from tournaments to training tours to booster club functions to the stables," Hanaregoma said as he read out the declaration at the Ryogoku Kokugikan sumo arena in Tokyo. "We will not let them be involved in any business dealings with sumo." |
| Aug 30 | Sumo: Europe in favor of Japanese traditional sport sumo (Xinhua) |
| "At the sumo world championships, eighty percent of the gold medals go to Europe," said Stephen Gadd, the General Secretary of European sumo union, at the first SportAccord Combat Games here on Sunday. At the SportAccord Games European players excelled their Asian opponents to collect seven of all the eight gold medals. Sumo, which is traditionally a Japanese-only sport, has found its root in Europe. There are currently 27 members in the European Sumo Union, more than any other continental sumo union on the world. "We are the most active union, holding 20-25 international tournaments every year," said Gadd. |
| Aug 30 | Baseball: Japan takes Little League WS title (Washington Post) |
 The Little League aces from Japan ended the United States' five-year reign as World Series champions.
The team from Tokyo limited Waipahu, Hawaii, to four singles, and got a homer and three RBIs from Konan Tomori to take the Little League World Series title with a 4-1 victory Sunday.
For the first time since 2003, a team from Japan is flying home with the championship banner.
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| Aug 27 | Baseball: Sato throws fastest pitch by Japanese player (AP) |
| Yakult Swallows right-hander Yoshinori Sato set a new record by a Japanese pitcher when he recorded a fastball at 161 kilometers per hour in a game against the Yokohama BayStars on Thursday. Four pitchers, including Sato and former Lotte Marines pitcher Hideki Irabu (Lotte) had been tied at 158 kph for the fastest pitch thrown by a Japanese player. Marc Kroon (Yomiuri Giants) hold the Japanese record for the fastest pitch at 162 kph. |
| Aug 27 | Olympics: Sekizuka to lead Olympic team (Japan Times) |
| Former Kawasaki Frontale manager Takashi Sekizuka will coach Japan at the 2012 London Olympics, Kyodo News learned Wednesday. The Japan Football Association is expected to make an official announcement in the coming days. The 49-year-old Sekizuka, who oversaw Frontale's promotion to the J. League first division and turned them into perennial championship contenders, will also serve as an assistant to the manager of the full national team - once he is found by the JFA. |
| Aug 26 | Baseball: Japan Shifting Views on Managers (New York Times) |
 Just three seasons ago, the Land of the Rising Sun seemed to be the land of opportunity for American baseball managers. Trey Hillman, Bobby Valentine, Marty Brown and Terry Collins piloted four of Nippon Professional Baseball's 12 teams. Valentine, the former Mets and Rangers manager, had recently been hoisted in the air by his players as the first foreigner to manage a team to the Nippon Series championship and Hillman, a former Class AAA manager for the Yankees, became the second to do so a year later. The stature of the American manager in Japan seemed to be at a zenith, as did the opportunity for other Americans looking to become managers.
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| Aug 26 | Baseball: Japanese Pro Baseball to change to ball with less flight (examiner.com) |
 Japan's twelve professional baseball teams will be switching to a new ball design for the 2011 season, Nippon Professional Baseball announced on August 23rd.
The NPB publicized the decision to change baseballs as an effort to find a ball that feels closer to the types of balls used in international competitions. NPB Commissioner Ryozo Kato stated in a press release that during the 2009 World Baseball Classic, Japanese players felt uneasy about differences in the regulation baseballs from that of Japan. After listening to player thoughts and requests at 2010 spring training camps, it was decided to pursue a new design. Commissioner Kato also stated that he personally hopes to see the use of the future Japanese baseball spread overseas.
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| Aug 25 | Tennis: Nadal to play in Japan Open (AP) |
| World No. 1 Rafael Nadal will make his first appearance in the Japan Open, the Japan Tennis Association announced Wednesday. Nadal, winner of this year's French Open and Wimbledon, headlines a field including ninth-ranked Andy Roddick and defending champion Jo- Wilfried Tsonga for the Oct. 4-10 tournament at Ariake Tennis Forest Park in Tokyo. |
| Aug 24 | Golf: 17 mil. yen golf club set featuring Wajima lacquer to be sold (AP) |
| Maruman & Co Ltd. will display a 16.80 million yen luxury golf club set it produced featuring traditional Japanese Wajima lacquer pictures at Isetan Co.'s department store in Shinjuku, Tokyo, from Wednesday, Maruman said Tuesday. The product, Majesty Prestigio Japan, includes 13 golf clubs and a cowhide caddy bag and targets mainly wealthy Asian consumers under a made-to-order system, according to the firm. |
| Aug 24 | Sumo: Asashoryu says sumo needs insider (Japan Times) |
| Former yokozuna Asashoryu reckons the Japan Sumo Association should not be hiring an independent committee to reform the national sport. "Your average person doesn't know his left from his right (when it comes to sumo)," Asashoryu said Monday, after arriving in Japan from his native Mongolia. "You need to have someone who watches keiko (practice) closely, someone who knows the ins and outs of sumo," added the 25-time Emperor's Cup winner, back in Japan to make courtesy visits ahead of his retirement ceremony scheduled for Oct. 3 at Tokyo's Ryogoku Kokugikan. |
| Aug 23 | Golf: In Japan, hugely popular Miyazato has the 'Ai' of a Tiger (portlandtribune.com) |
 First there was Nancy Lopez on the LPGA Tour.
Then there was Annika Sorenstam. And Lorena Ochoa.
Is the next women's golf superstar ... Ai Miyazato?
Miyazato moved back into the No. 1 spot in the world rankings Sunday with a near wire-to-wire victory in the Safeway Classic at Pumpkin Ridge Golf Club.
It was her fifth victory in only 14 appearances on the circuit in 2010.
Miyazato, 25, is not a household name in the sporting world, unless you're in her native Japan, where she is an extremely big deal.
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| Aug 23 | Sumo: Ex-wrestler, 2 gangsters rearrested over sumo wrestlers' gambling (AP) |
| Police served fresh arrest warrants on Sunday on a former sumo wrestler and two gangsters affiliated with Japan's largest crime syndicate, the Yamaguchi-gumi, for allegedly trying to extort 100 million yen in hush money from former ozeki Kotomitsuki in connection with an illegal gambling scandal rocking the traditional sport, investigative sources said. The Metropolitan Police Department served the warrants on former sumo wrestler Mitsutomo Furuichi, 38, as well as mobsters Yoshihiko Yasuda, 45, and Satohiro Mantani, 37. |
| Aug 23 | Soccer: Nagoya pull away in J1 championship race (AP) |
| Nagoya Grampus moved five points clear of Cerezo Osaka in the J-League first division title race with a 3-1 victory over Gamba Osaka on Sunday night. A gorgeous drive by Naoshi Nakamura from 30 meters out pushed Grampus in front in the sixth minute at Mizuho Stadium. Hideo Hashimoto equalized 11 minutes later, the Gamba midfielder scoring in his sixth straight game. But Hashimoto's goal -- his seventh of the season -- went to waste as Danilson made it 2-1 for Grampus with a header from a penalty-box scramble. |
| Aug 22 | Swimming: Kitajima wins 200 breaststroke at Pan Pacs (AP) |
| Olympic champion Kosuke Kitajima won the men's 200-meter breaststroke at the Pan Pacific championships Saturday. Kitajima clocked 2:08.36 seconds, the world's fastest this season, after coming in first in the preliminaries in 2:09.23. Kitajima on Thursday marked his return to the spotlight with a victory in the 100- meter breaststroke. |
| Aug 22 | Baseball: Konan earns Koshien title (Japan Times) |
| Konan of Okinawa Prefecture roughed up highly touted right-hander Shinta Hifumi and trounced Kanagawa's Tokaidai Sagami 13-1 in the final of the National High School Baseball Championship on Saturday. Konan became only the sixth school in the long history of Japanese high school baseball to win both the spring and summer national tournaments and first since Daisuke Matsuzaka, now with the Boston Red Sox, helped Yokohama do so in 1998. |
| Aug 20 | Sumo: Senior yakuza faces fresh arrest warrant for 100-million-yen shakedown of ozeki (Mainichi) |
| Police are poised to serve fresh arrest warrants on a senior mobster and several others for allegedly attempting to extort some 100 million yen from former Ozeki Kotomitsuki over illegal baseball gambling, it has been learned. The Metropolitan Police Department and Honjo Police Station are set to hit Satohiro Mantani, 37, a senior member of a gang affiliated with the Yamaguchi-gumi criminal syndicate, and others with new charges of attempted extortion. Mantani has already been arrested on suspicion of blackmail. Investigators are also probing whether former wrester Mitsutomo Furuichi, 38, and others were involved in the attempted extortion. |
| Aug 20 | Basketball: Time for bj-league to slow down on expansion (Japan Times) |
| In a mad rush to expand, the bj-league is ignoring a number of real concerns, including the pressing need to aggressively market itself in Tokyo, this nation's entertainment, government, financial and media capital. Maybe you've heard prospective ownership groups in Chiba and Iwate Prefectures are among those interested in gaining a new expansion franchise for the 2011-12 season, and an announcement is scheduled for Aug. 26. |
| Aug 18 | Soccer; Wanted - New Japan Soccer Miracle Worker Search Japan Real Time (Wall Street Journal) |
 Japanese soccer needs a new miracle worker - a national coach to replace Takeshi Okada, who steered the team to the knock-out stages of a World Cup on foreign soil for the first time in its history but resigned soon after, his work done. The Japan Football Association says it has narrowed the field down to three candidates-all of them foreign-but has not given any names.
Local media (in Japanese) have reported that former Porto coach Victor Fernandez and former Dutch national team manager - and star striker in his heyday in the 1980s - Marco van Basten are the front runners to replace Mr. Okada, who is reportedly moving to a career in the less stressful world of TV punditry.
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| Aug 18 | Sumo: High hopes for new sumo chief (Japan Times) |
| The Japan Sumo Association, which has been rocked by gambling and other scandals suggesting the existence of ties with organized crime, elected stablemaster Hanaregoma, the former ozeki Kaiketsu, as its new chairman in an emergency board meeting late Aug. 12. It is hoped that under his leadership, the JSA will be able to dispel tarnished images about the national sport and win back people's trust in it. To clean and modernize the sumo world, the education ministry, which supervises the JSA, thought that an outside person should lead the JSA. |
| Aug 16 | Curling: Olympic star forms new team (AP) |
| Olympic curler Mari Motohashi announced Monday she has parted ways with Team Aomori and formed a team in her native Hokkaido. The new team is made up of five peers of Motohashi from Kitami, the curling capital of Japan formerly called Tokoro. "I made this move because I believe that building this team from scratch will help me grow as a curler and as a person," Motohashi said at a press conference in Tokyo. The 24-year-old nicknamed "Marilyn" played for Team Aomori at the past two Olympics. Team Aomori finished seventh in Turin and eighth in Vancouver out of 10 teams. |
| Aug 15 | Sumo: New chief chief must clean house (Yomiuri) |
| The installation of a new chairman of the Japan Sumo Association is a chance to renew the professional sumo world. It is a chance the JSA must seize. Musashigawa, formerly yokozuna Mienoumi, resigned the JSA chairmanship Thursday, and Hanaregoma, formerly ozeki Kaiketsu, was elected to become the 11th chairman of the sport's governing body. |
| Aug 14 | Baseball: Matsui good for PR but struggling at the plate (whittierdailynews.com) |
| In Japan, Hideki Matsui is a hero. In Anaheim, Matsui is a 36-year-old designated hitter, too slow to play the field on a regular basis, hitting .243 with 14 homers and 57 RBIs and making $6 million this season. He replaced Vladimir Guerrero, who wanted a multiyear contract to stay with the Angels. When Guerrero didn't get the multiyear deal, he tested the market and ended up getting a one-year deal with the Rangers for $6.5 million. While Guerrero has thrived with the American League West-leading Rangers, hitting .296 with 21 homers and 86 RBIs, Matsui has struggled, especially of late. In his past 11 games, Matsui is hitting .135 (5 for 37) with no homers and two RBIs. All five of his hits are singles. |
| Aug 13 | Sumo: Japan Sumo chief resigns amid betting scandal (MSNBC) |
 The head of the Japan Sumo Association resigned Thursday, as the nation's ancient sport is beleaguered by a gambling scandal involving top wrestlers and coaches, with gangsters acting as go-betweens.
Outgoing chairman Musashigawa, a former grand champion, was replaced Thursday by Hanaregoma, who once held the second-highest rank of ozeki.
His resignation came as the association aims to restore the confidence of sumo fans amid the gambling scandal, which shed light on connections between wrestlers and organized crime.
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| Aug 11 | Soccer: Japan fears Asia's World Cup spots may be cut (AFP) |
 Japan's football chief is worried that Asia's four and a half berths in the 2014 World Cup may be reduced to four, with Oceania expected to demand a full spot.
"I'm worried," Japan Football Association (JFA) president Junji Ogura was quoted as saying Wednesday by the daily Chunichi Sports. "We must think about how to fight against it."
Currently, Asia has four direct qualifying berths for the World Cup finals and one "0.5" spot via a two-tiered play-off with Oceania's champions.
Oceania Football Confederation president Reynald Temarii is "certain" to demand a full berth for his region when the executive committee of FIFA, football's world governing body, meets in December, an unnamed senior JFA official told the daily.
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| Aug 11 | Golf: Ryo Ishikawa: a 'prince' who wants to rule golf (AP) |
 The first crush of photographers chased after Tiger Woods on his way to the practice range in his first tournament back from knee surgery. Then came another commotion of cameras.
This was for Ryo Ishikawa, who was nothing more than an alternate in the Match Play Championship.
Woods and Ishikawa met for the first time that morning in February 2009. They first played together later that summer at Turnberry, where there Japanese teen idol was three shots better than golf's superpower, although both wound up missing the cut. At the Presidents Cup, the only two matches the 18-year-old Ishikawa lost were to Woods and Steve Stricker.
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| Aug 09 | Baseball: Japan's female phenom thrills startup U.S. league (Reuters) |
 The hot-selling item at Chico Outlaws baseball games this year, apart from the standard food and beer, is the T-shirt version of a jersey worn by an 18-year-old Japanese woman, Eri Yoshida.
The 5-feet, 1-inch (1.55-meter) knuckleballer, part of an otherwise-all-male pitching staff averaging over 6 feet, has brought unprecedented media attention to her baseball franchise in rural Northern California.
Appearances of the "knuckle princess" on the mound helps boost attendance at Nettleton Stadium, a 4,200-capacity stadium in Chico where the Outlaws play.
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| Aug 06 | Olympics: Japan targets 10th place in medals table at 2014 Sochi Games (AP) |
| The Japanese Olympic Committee has drawn up for the first time a mid- to long-term strengthening "Gold Plan" for the Winter Olympics and has set a target of 10th in the overall medal standings at the 2014 Sochi Games, Olympic sources said Thursday. The Gold Plan committee is to make a decision on the target on Friday and will approve it at an executive board meeting in September. Japan captured five medals at the Vancouver Games in February and placed 15th in the overall medal standings meaning it would likely need between nine and 11 to finish in the top 10 in Sochi. |
| Aug 06 | Golf: Led by Ishikawa and Ikeda, Japanese golfers prospering (pgatour.com) |
 A year or so ago, it was the young guns. And that gave way to the 40-somethings.
Now the trend on the PGA TOUR is the dominance of international players who have won 11 of the last 15 tournaments. The British, in particular, are having what Northern Ireland's Graeme McDowell called a "purple patch" that he helped fuel when he won the U.S. Open at Pebble Beach. South Africans, Australians and a Swede also contributed to the recent global juggernaut.
So what country will produce the next crop of international stars? Well, you might be surprised to find out that Japan boasts six players ranked among the top 100 in the Official World Golf Ranking.
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| Aug 04 | Horse Racing: Japanese gunning for Melbourne Cup (Mainichi) |
JAPAN'S famous Yoshida family is hunting another Melbourne Cup, with Tenno Sho winner Jaguar Mail among five Japanese entries in the 150th Cup.
Racing Victoria reported 253 entries for the $6 million Cup, up 22 on last year.
The Caulfield Cup attracted 235 nominations (up eight on last year), while 186 hopefuls are in the Cox Plate (down 10 on 2009).
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| Aug 04 | Soccer : Japan to face Paraguay in friendly (Japan Times) |
| Japan will play Paraguay next month in a friendly rematch of their round of 16 game at the World Cup. Japan will play Paraguay at home on Sept. 4, JFA president Junji Ogura said Tuesday. It will be Japan's first match under a new coach, who has yet to be named. |
| Aug 02 | Horse racing: Jockey Take begins comeback after injury (Japan Times) |
 Star jockey Yutaka Take made his comeback on Sunday after being sidelined for nearly fourth months with an injury sustained when he was tossed from his horse during a Grade Three race. The 41-year-old Take, who has won at least one Grade One title every year for the last 22 years, rode two horses at the Kokura Kinen Grade Three meeting, placing fourth in Race 6 aboard Code Z before guiding top favorite Smart Gear to a third-place finish in Race 10.
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| Jul 31 | Basketball: Pierce named Akita's first coach (Japan Times) |
| Bob Pierce, the first coach in Shiga Lakestars history, has been appointed the expansion Akita Northern Happinets' first coach, the bj-league team announced on Friday. Pierce, who turns 50 on Sunday, guided the Lakestars to the team's first playoff berth last season. The team made a 10-win improvement in 2009-10, going 29-23 and finishing fourth in the ultra-competitive Western Conference. |
| Jul 30 | Golf: Ai Miyazato off to sticky start at Women's British Open (AP) |
| World No. 2 Ai Miyazato got off to a lackluster start in her bid for a first major title overseas with a 4-over 76 at the Women's British Open on Thursday. Miyazato made five bogeys before knocking down her only birdie of the day on the 17th hole at Royal Birkdale Golf Club, while compatriots Mika Miyazato, no relation to Ai, and Chie Arimura fared even worse with 77s. |
| Jul 27 | Baseball: Knuckle Princess (Globe & Mail) |
 Some have looked at Eri Yoshida in cleats and cap and held their nose in contempt.
What in the world is she doing out there on the mound? She stands 5 foot 1 and weighs less than Barry Bonds's head. She's 18, can't speak more than a few words of English, can't throw over the top and her best pitch comes in at the speed of slow-motion.
Little wonder baseball purists, even some in the independent Golden League, have dismissed the Japanese side-armed Knuckle Princess as nothing more than a novelty act, a gimmick to invite people into the park so they can gawk at the first woman to pitch professionally in three countries (Japan, the United States, and now Canada).
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| Jul 27 | Sumo association sticks with Murayama as acting chairman (Yomiuri) |
| Japan Sumo Association Acting Chairman Hiroyoshi Murayama will stay on in the post because his scheduled replacement has come under fire over his role in a ticketing scandal, The Yomiuri Shimbun has learned. Murayama was appointed acting chairman this month in the aftermath of a gang-related gambling scandal that implicated dozens of sumo wrestlers and stablemasters. The association planned to replace Murayama with stablemaster Dewanoumi, a JSA director, after the Nagoya tournament ended Sunday. |
| Jul 26 | Hakuho wins scandal-tainted Nagoya sumo (MSNBC) |
 Hakuho won his 15th career title at the Nagoya Grand Sumo Tournament on Saturday in an event overshadowed by a gambling scandal that has hit Japan's ancient sport.
The Mongolian defeated compatriot Harumafuji to improve to 14-0 but wrapped up the Emperor's Cup when Homasho fell to a third defeat to Tokusegawa in a previous bout.
Dozens of sumo's top wrestlers and coaches allegedly wagered as much as $50,000 dollars on professional baseball games, with gangsters reportedly acting as go-betweens.
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| Jul 25 | Sumo: Hakuho wins Nagoya basho, breaks Taiho's win streak (AP) |
| Mongolian grand champion Hakuho clinched his 15th career title in anticlimactic fashion at the Nagoya Grand Sumo Tournament on Saturday, but still got an extra bonus of extending his miraculous winning streak to 46 bouts to place him alone in third on sumo's all-time list. Hakuho claimed his third consecutive title without having to lift a finger as Japanese-born nearest challenger Homasho fell to a third defeat to Mongolian Tokusegawa before the lone yokozuna could step into the raised ring for a pulverization of countryman Harumafuji at Aichi Prefectural Gymnasium. "I did what I could do," said Hakuho. "It is too bad that I won't be able to get anything. It's unfortunate," said Hakuho said, referring to the fact that the Emperor's Cup and other awards will not be presented in a "yusho" ceremony due to a gambling scandal rocking the sport. |
| Jul 24 | The sumo and the Yakuza (Globe & Mail) |
 Perhaps no other sport is pursued as religiously as sumo wrestling. Before a match, referees (who double as Shinto priests) purify the seaweed, salt and sake. Wrestlers wash their faces, mouths and armpits before entering the dohyo (ring), on whose sacred sand neither shoes nor women may tread. Before a match starts, the two contestants raise their hands to show they are not hiding weapons in the folds of their loincloth-like belt.
The elders of the Japan Sumo Association, the retired wrestlers who govern the sport, see themselves less as administrators than as guardians of a holy tradition. They promote wrestlers to the highest ranks not just on brute merit but according to how much hinkaku (dignity) they are judged to possess.
That dignity is vanishing. Allegations of match-fixing, dope-smoking, orgies and ties to gangsters among the sport's top stars have enraged the Japanese public. Indeed, sumo circles are now facing growing public infamy, causing many Japanese to wonder whether their country is capable of purifying itself.
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| Jul 24 | Baseball: HGH testing begins in minors (Japan Times) |
| Major League Baseball implemented random blood testing for human growth hormone in the minor leagues on Thursday, the first professional sports league in the United States to take the aggressive step against doping. The blood testing becomes part of the Minor League Drug Prevention and Treatment Program, which commissioner Bud Selig introduced in 2001 to test for performance-enhancing drugs. |
| Jul 23 | Sumo: Hakuho's streak at 44 and counting (Japan Times) |
 Mongolian grand champion Hakuho moved within one win of matching former yokozuna great Taiho's 45-bout winning streak on Thursday, overpowering rank-and-filer Kitataiki on the 12th day of the Nagoya Grand Sumo Tournament. The lone yokozuna, who is the only undefeated wrestler at 12-0, will face his biggest test over the final three days of the 15-day meet, starting with Bulgarian ozeki Kotooshu on Friday, as he aims to become the first wrestler since the incorporation of the six-tourney system in 1958 to win three consecutive meets without a defeat.
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| Jul 22 | Soccer: FIFA gives thumbs-up to Japanese stadium (AFP) |
| FIFA officials inspecting Japan's bid for the 2022 World Cup gave the thumbs-up to a major football stadium outside Tokyo Wednesday, according to the Japanese bid chief. On the third day of a four-day visit to Japan, the delegates were also treated to a dinner by Japanese Prime Minister Naoto Kan, who said his government was fully supporting the bid. A five-member team from the sport's world governing body earlier visited the 64,000-seat stadium in the satellite city of Saitama, north of Tokyo, after spending two days in the western city of Osaka. |
| Jul 22 | Sumo champ Asashoryu starts MMA camp (USA Today) |
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| Jul 22 | Sumo: Mob-linked building rented by sumo figure (Japan Times) |
 Sumo stablemaster Matsugane rented a building in the city of Osaka from a business executive with alleged close ties to the Yamaguchi-gumi underworld syndicate and used it for training and lodging wrestlers in March, sources said Wednesday. The revelation is another blow to the ancient sport as it grapples with the scandal over illegal gambling involving wrestlers, stablemasters and the yakuza.
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| Jul 22 | Sumo: Dominating Hakuho marching toward title (Japan Times) |
| At this point there are few, if any, left from the tattered ranks who can stop Mongolian yokozuna Hakuho as he zeroes in on his 15th career title in sole possession of the lead at the Nagoya Grand Sumo Tournament. After handing out a beating to sekiwake Kotoshogiku on Wednesday, the lone yokozuna is likely to bump heads with the three remaining ozeki in the coming days but none of them appear up to the challenge of pulling off an upset, let alone snapping his incredible winning streak, which he has stretched to a personal-best 43 bouts. |
| Jul 20 | Sumo: Hakuho escapes scare, keeps winning streak alive at Nagoya (AP) |
| Mongolian grand champion Hakuho escaped his biggest scare thus far, warding off a fierce challenge from sekiwake Kisenosato to remain in a share of the lead on the 10th day of action at the Nagoya Grand Sumo Tournament on Tuesday. The lone yokozuna extended his personal-best winning streak to 42 bouts, but it was the closest he came to tasting the agony of defeat at the 15-day meet at Aichi Prefectural Gymnasium. |
| Jul 20 | Sumo: Hakuho still in charge after comfortable win (Japan Times) |
 Mongolian yokozuna Hakuho devoured in-form countryman Kakuryu in a comfortable win on Monday, retaining his share of the lead at the Nagoya Grand Sumo Tournament. Hakuho improved to 9-0 at the 15-day meet and sits in a tie with surprise package Homasho. Kakuryu, a former sekiwake, fell to his first defeat of the tournament.
The lone yokozuna, who is on an amazing 41-bout winning run dating back to the New Year meet in January, is the prohibitive favorite to claim his 15th career title.
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| Jul 19 | Soccer: Japan first up as FIFA inspects World Cup hopefuls (timesofmalta.com) |
 The sport's world governing body, FIFA, tomorrow kicks off a two-month inspection tour of Japan, South Korea, Australia, the Netherlands-Belgium, Russia, England, Spain-Portugal, the United States and Qatar in that order.
The first stop, Japan, is counting on its impressive organisational, financial and technological power to win the 2022 event. It co-hosted the 2002 World Cup with South Korea after staging one summer and two winter Olympics.
Japan has promised to treat football fans worldwide to ultra-realistic live three-dimensional broadcasts of matches.
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| Jul 19 | Sumo: Hakuho joins exclusive 40-win club in Nagoya (Japan Times) |
| Yokozuna Hakuho extended his winning streak to 40 bouts at the Nagoya Grand Sumo Tournament on Sunday, becoming only the fourth man to achieve the feat in the history of the ancient sport. With his victory over fellow Mongolian Tokitenku, Hakuho joined former sumo greats Futabayama (69), Chiyonofuji (53) and Taiho (45) in one of the most exclusive clubs of the sport. |