Just when Tokyo got a boost in its campaign to host the 2020 Olympics, a judo coaching scandal within Japan’s sporting culture threatens to undermine the bid.
Officials from the Tokyo 2020 Bid Committee were pleased when a poll Jan. 30 showed that public support for hosting the Summer Games had risen to 73 percent, given that low ratings helped derail Tokyo’s campaign to land the 2016 Olympics.
But the same day, the All Japan Judo Federation revealed that the head coach of the national women’s Olympic team, Ryuji Sonoda, had violently abused judoka at a training camp before last year’s London Olympics. He quit Jan. 31.
The revelations raise concerns for Tokyo 2020 bid officials, knowing an International Olympic Committee evaluation panel will visit the capital in March. One of the main themes of Tokyo’s campaign is “athletes first.”
On Friday, the Japanese Olympic Committee said a two-day preliminary hearing of its 31 member sports federations found no cases of violence or harassment during training since the 2010 Winter Games in Vancouver.
Later that day, the Swiss-based International Judo Federation issued a statement that the Japan women’s judo team’s technical staff have been indefinitely suspended while an independent inquiry is opened.
JOC Secretary General Noriyuki Ichihara denied that officials were rushing investigations to wrap up the problem in time for next month’s inspection in Tokyo.
“This is a huge problem for the entire sports community,” Ichihara said at a news conference Friday. “We are not rushing to deal with it just because the IOC is coming. This is going to take some time and patience.”
Tokyo Gov. Naoki Inose has said he doesn’t think the scandal will hurt Tokyo’s chances of landing the games, but the JOC issued a statement saying it would conduct further investigations into the use of physical violence by coaches in judo and all other Olympic sports, this time interviewing elite athletes.
Japan’s judo federation revealed in late January that 15 female judoka had sent a letter to the JOC at the end of 2012 that indicated they had been subjected to physical violence and harassment by Sonoda at a pre-Olympic training camp. The federation, which had known about the problem since some of the women first raised the issue in September, still decided to renew Sonoda’s contract.
Sonoda tried to justify his behavior by saying he was under tremendous pressure to produce gold medal winners at the London Games. He said he didn’t think slapping was considered violence and that he had been trained the same way.
Sports minister Hakubun Shimomura has described the situation as the most serious crisis in Japan’s sports history, saying, “The sports community must make concerted efforts to go back to the fundamental principle that violence should be eradicated from sports instruction.”
Days after Sonoda stepped down, two-time Olympic judo champion Masato Uchishiba was sentenced to five years in prison for raping a female member of a university judo club in 2011.
Naoki Ogi, a former teacher and popular social critic, attributes the corporal punishment to poor coaching techniques. “Corporal punishment is an easy solution for instructors who lack leadership and skills, who know they won’t be challenged,” Ogi wrote on his blog. “It’s a dirty trick.”
Ogi suggested the JOC and the judo federation coordinated their responses to the scandal. “They must be colluding,” Ogi said, adding that the JOC should have launched its own investigation a long time ago. “There is no doubt this ongoing scandal will affect (Tokyo’s) Olympic bid. It’s a pity.”
The complaints by the 15 women were initially ignored by the AJJF, whose 26-member executive board has no women, so they turned directly to the JOC.”We were deeply hurt both mentally and physically because of violence and harassment taken upon us by former coach Sonoda in the name of guidance. It went far beyond what it should have,” the women said in a joint statement released through their lawyers.
“Our dignity as humans was disgraced, which caused some of us to cry, and others to wear out. We participated in matches and training as we were constantly intimidated by the presence of the coach while we were forced to see our teammates suffer.”
Sonoda was in London for last summer’s Olympics, where the Japanese team won one gold medal in women’s judo. Many in Japan have pointed out that his actions go against the Olympic charter, which bans violence.
Former Yomiuri Giants pitcher Masumi Kuwata, once one of the biggest stars in Japanese professional baseball, has spoken out against corporal punishment while revealing that he, too, was a victim of violence as a fledgling ballplayer in elementary school.
“I don’t think corporal punishment as a form of instruction makes one stronger,” Kuwata said in an interview with NHK. “Those teaching sports need to change their methods to fit the times.”
Judo, which means “gentle way,” holds a special place in Japanese society. It was invented in Japan and was the first Japanese martial art to gain widespread international recognition, as well as the first to become an official Olympic sport, at the 1964 Tokyo Games.
The sport’s founder, Jigoro Kano, saw it as a pursuit that encompassed self-defense, physical culture and moral behavior. Kano was an educator and played a key role in making judo a part of public school programs in the early 1900s. Women were banned from participating in matches until the 1970s and still face discrimination in terms of promotions and their rank, former Olympic judoka Noriko Mizoguchi said.
Author Robert Whiting, who detailed corporal punishment in Japanese baseball in his 1989 book “You Gotta Have Wa,” said violence in the nation’s sports traces its roots to martial arts.
“Corporal punishment is the legacy of the martial arts, where physical education means physical punishment and is considered a valid way of teaching,” Whiting said. “Still evident all over Japan in all sports, it’s very widespread. Screw up in practice and you get a slap on the head or a kick in the butt — that’s how you learn.”
At the time of Sonoda’s resignation, corporal punishment was already under the spotlight over the December suicide of an Osaka high school basketball team captain who endured repeated beatings from his coach. The boy told his mother the day before his death that he had been struck 30 to 40 times by his coach.
The 47-year-old coach, whose name has not been disclosed, admitted slapping the teen after he made a mistake and said the punishment was intended to “fire him up.”
Corporal punishment at school is prohibited under the Fundamental Law of Education, but some teachers still believe in the old ways. According to the education ministry, around 400 corporal punishment cases are reported at public schools every year. About a quarter of the incidents involve sports teams. In 2001, one-third of the reported cases resulted in injuries — mostly cuts and bruises to the head or face.
In 2009, former sumo stablemaster Tokitsukaze, whose real name is Junichi Yamamoto, was sentenced to six years in prison for his role in the fatal punishment of a young wrestler during training. He ordered three wrestlers, in the name of instruction, to beat 17-year-old grappler Tokitaizan, hitting him with beer bottles, a baseball bat and hosing him with cold water.
Despite the promises of reform, author Whiting thinks the practices may be too entrenched in Japanese society for real change to occur.
“What makes Japan different from the United States is that generally, Japanese coaches put themselves above the players, like a military drill sergeant,” he said. “Sports is much more militaristic in Japan. That’s the legacy of the martial arts, where a whack on the head is considered a form of teaching.”
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Equalizer