A former sumo wrestler who is suing the sport's governing body in Japan after he was allegedly forced to retire for refusing to fight during the COVID-19 pandemic, said Monday he had gone public in hopes of changing the secretive sport's culture.
Daisuke Yanagihara, 25, said he told his stablemaster in January 2021 that he was reluctant to participate in a Tokyo-hosted grand tournament due to surging coronavirus infections in the capital.
Yanagihara, who began wrestling when he was 15, said he had undergone heart surgery a few years earlier and was worried about the risks to his health if he got sick.