The arrest of two-time Olympic judo champion Masato Uchishiba on suspicion of raping a female member of a judo team for which he served as a coach has come as a shock to judo fans and the sports world in general. But sport as a whole needs to examine whether it does not have a culture susceptible to giving rise to crimes.
Mr. Uchishiba won two Olympic gold medals in a row in the men's 66-kg class — at the 2004 Athens Games and at Beijing 2008. He became a visiting professor at the Kyushu University of Nursing and Social Welfare in Tamana, Kumamoto Prefecture, in January 2011 and also a coach of the university's judo team.
On Nov. 29, the university fired him, saying that he sexually harassed a female member of the team Sept. 19 on a road trip in Tokyo. The Metropolitan Police Department arrested him Dec. 6 on suspicion of raping the woman in a Tokyo hotel after she fell asleep after drinking.