With an eye on the 2020 Tokyo Olympic and Paralympic Games, the Japan Sumo Association, in coordination with a government initiative, is taking steps to make this ancient sport more accessible to foreign visitors and the disabled.

At a recent event in Tokyo's Ryogoku Kokugikan sumo venue featuring wrestlers from the elite makuuchi division, many of the rituals and details of matches were explained in English through simultaneous interpretation.

Information about sumo wrestlers was also provided, along with other trivia about the activity — a service not usually offered to Japanese spectators — and there are plans to make simultaneous interpretation available in other languages in the future.