With all the recent hullabaloo over Tokyo's scrapped national stadium costing too much, and being an over-the-top architectural white elephant (a new stadium budget was unveiled on Friday), few in Japan noticed the decision of the Tokyo Organising Committee of the Olympic and Paralympic Games to give amateur sumo's ambitions of becoming an Olympic sport in 2020 a resounding thumbs down.
And why would it? The amateur sumo governing body, the International Sumo Federation (IFS) has made no known official comment since.
The body's official homepage makes no mention of the IOC decision despite for 20 years those taking part in amateur sumo openly citing future Olympic attendance as one of their reasons for joining the sport; the carrot of future Olympic participation frequently dangled before competitors' eyes at IFS events and other tournaments.