You will pardon my french but - bulls**t!

My "credentials" as a fan and observer of sumo are just as good or better than yours so "as someone who follows sumo closely ..." makes you no more of an expert that any other fan on the street. You may disagree - even strongly - with my position but that doesn't necessarily make me "wrong."

NHK has been bombarded with calls from Japanese viewers who are protesting the cancellation of TV coverage. It is too bad that those folks didn't call BEFORE the decision was made but they didn't and the "no TV" crowd carried the day. NHK is only doing what they are doing out of their sense of what will make NHK look best to the public and the government, not out of an attempt to "punish" the NSK. If Japanese viewers had any way to protest by refusing to pay for NHK for the month, I think they would see a real dent in income. Unfortunately, payment for NHK is mandatory, even for those who do not watch it. Quite a racket.

Yokozuna Hakuho had it right in an interview yesterday. Cancellation of TV coverage does more to punish international fans, such as those in his own country of Mongolia, than it does to punish the NSK. Four of the top five rikishi are now "foreigners," which is a cause for more than a little heartburn in Japan. I see this as just one more slap at foreigners, not a blow for foreigner recognition.