OSAKA – Rank-and-filer Sakaizawa withdrew from the Spring Grand Sumo Tournament on Sunday because of a knee injury. Sakaizawa hurt his left knee in a defeat to Kakizoe on Saturday, the seventh day of the 15-day meet at Osaka Prefectural Gymnasium. It was the 15th-ranked maegashira’s fourth loss. Sakaizawa, wrestling in his first tournament in sumo’s elite makuuchi division, has pulled out of a meet for the first time since last year’s Nagoya basho. He forfeits Sunday’s scheduled bout with Toyohibiki. The 24-year-old joined sumo’s top flight just 12 tournaments since making his professional debut, the second fastest rise to the makuuchi division since the establishment of the six-tournament system in 1958.
Business
DoCoMo counting on R&D to stay ahead
by Kazuaki Nagata
NTT DoCoMo Inc., despite being Japan’s biggest mobile phone carrier, has been struggling against tough smartphone competition from KDDI Corp. and Softbank Corp., which is leading in that area. But one edge that the cellphone behemoth — it has more than 60 million subscribers ...