This has got to be one of the weirdest assistant-related stories I’ve come across lately: a sumo wrestler in Japan, whose name is Toyozakura, is being punished for beating his 18-year-old assistant with a bamboo sword. What’s kind of cool about this story (not the assistant getting smacked part, of course) is that the Japanese government takes sumo so seriously that they’re penalizing Toyozakura by docking his pay 30 percent for the next three months.
Unfortunately, other sumo assistants (junior wrestlers who are in training) have not had it so easy in the past. Witness:
Violent hazing, or beating during training, has long been seen as customary, contributing to the sport’s struggle to attract new recruits. But there was a public outcry over the death last year of a teenage apprentice who was beaten with a beer bottle and a baseball bat.
Seriously? While docking pay is a nice start and public embarrassment is an even better one, there has to be a way to let people know that such behavior is completely inappropriate, even for aspiring wrestlers.
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