A VICE profile of 2 retired rikishi.
I used to watch every basho, but I stopped a couple of years ago, because what we are doing to rikishi (ie, human beings) for entertainment is morally wrong. I still check in on a couple of my guys once in a while, but I can’t really enjoy it the way I used to.
Interesting video. I think Japan has a relatively good “safety net”, so at least they have access to healthcare.
However, the vast majority of retiring wrestlers do not remain in positions within the Sumo Association. The luckiest manage to maintain their public profile by becoming TV personalities, sports commentators or actors. Most of them find themselves in activities unrelated to sumo and with no professional experience, having become wrestlers before their twenties and having had no other activities. This makes their situation complex, as when they enter the job market they find themselves competing with other employees of the same age group who do, however, have much more professional experience. Most of the time, retirees have no savings because they have not been able to secure a salary by reaching one of the two sekitori divisions. If they retire after an injury, it is all the more difficult to find work. Because they have no experience, most former wrestlers who find work also usually earn less than others in the same occupation. Most retirees find work in activities related to either cooking or physical labor, such as foodservices, care for the elderly and sports coaching. The majority find work in chankonabe restaurants, putting to good use the techniques they had learned while preparing meals in the stables.
Coming from many different nationalities, rikishi are the only employees of the Japan Sumo Association who can run the organization once they have chosen to retire. However, only a tiny fraction of wrestlers are given this opportunity, leaving the vast majority of the sport’s retirees in a precarious situation.
Statistics shows that only one wrestler in fifty makes it to the jūryō division, just one in a hundred becomes a makuuchi wrestler, and only one in four hundred makes the yokozuna rank. Hence, most wrestlers retire from professional sumo without ever having reached the salaried levels.
Only wrestlers ranked jūryō and above receive a monthly salary. All wrestlers ranked below are given no monthly wages but receive a more modest allowance during the tournaments.
