In a life-threatening moment, Maizuru Mayor Ryozo Tatami suddenly collapsed while delivering a speech during a sumo exhibition in Kyoto. He was having a st
In a life-threatening moment, Maizuru Mayor Ryozo Tatami suddenly collapsed while delivering a speech during a sumo exhibition in Kyoto.
He was having a stroke. Several men rushed to the dohyō (ring) to help, but they appeared at a loss over what to do.
Seconds later, a woman ran up from the audience and immediately started giving the mayor CPR. She probably didn’t expect her actions to spark a national debate on the controversial traditions of the sumo world.
The referee repeatedly told several women who had rushed to help the mayor to leave the ring, including the first woman — who turned out to be a nurse. The request was based on the sumo tradition banning women from entering the “sacred” ring.
Critics say the ban is based on Shinto and Buddhist beliefs that hold that women are “impure” because of menstrual blood, an idea criticized by many as sexist and outdated.
Experts recently interviewed by The Japan Times agree the tradition is outdated and may eventually go away, given the growing debate over gender issues in the nation’s male-dominated society.
But at the same time, they also urged caution to prevent oversimplification of the issue from triggering a categorical denial of Japan’s cultural traditions, saying it might hinder the public from reaching a correct understanding of the historical background behind such traditions.
“Religions and cultures are smeared with so much (sexual) discrimination that you can find it anywhere in the world,” said Chizuko Ueno, professor emeritus of sociology at University of Tokyo and a pioneer in the nation’s feminist movement.
“For example, if you conclude all the Christian countries are sexist because of the story of Adam and Eve, that’s an absurd and overly simplistic analogy,” she said.
Overseas media immediately jumped on the incident, describing it as a sign of women’s relatively low social status in male-dominated Japan. Ueno said this is typical “Orientalist” media behavior when it comes to Japan and its customs, which are often misinterpreted as symbols of the overall trend in society. Orientalism, first explained in detail in a 1978 book by Edward Said, refers to stereotype prejudice held by Western media and intellectuals that see the East as an exotic and often inferior civilization.
“My first response was, ‘Not again,’ ” Ueno said. “This (sexist) problem has been repeated many times.
“But I don’t think you should directly regard it as a symbol of the social discrimination against women in Japan. That’s an overly simplistic view,” she said.
As Ueno pointed out, this is not the first time the sumo rule has caused a public stir and been criticized as sexual discrimination.
In 1990, then-Chief Cabinet Secretary Mayumi Moriyama, the first woman to hold the position, asked the Japan Sumo Association to let her enter the ring so she could present the Prime Minister’s cup to the winner, but she was rejected.
A similar request by Osaka Gov. Fusae Ota in 2000 was also rejected.
Ueno believes Japanese women suffer greatly from sexual discrimination, as is shown in many surveys and statistics.
The World Economic Forum, for example, ranked Japan 114th out of 144 countries surveyed for its 2017 gender equality report.
Ueno said the male-only tradition observed in sumo has helped reinforce sexist attitudes toward women in Japan and should be abolished.
