Re: Futagoyama

[abe@zoom.com (Masumi Abe)]

Dave Turkington さんが  8:51 AM 9/6/96 -0600ごろに
「Futagoyama」の件で：
>The news from Tokyo this morning said that because Futagoyama oyakata
>failed to report & pay >300 million Yen in taxes, he is being forced to
>resign as the director of the Jungyo tour. 

According to Asahi Shimbun, he was fired (kainin) from the post and 
will stay as a director without any particular responsibility and his monthly
salary will be reduced by 30% for next 6 months. This is the very first time
ever that a director of Sumo Kyokai with a title being forced to lose his title.

>His brother is also being forced
>to resign as the director of the Sumo museum.
>
>Can someone tell us if i heard that correctly? Is this a serious penalty or
>does the Hanada family only look at it as a mild slap on the wrist?

It is a serious penalty, IMHO. This is a simbolic gesture of how serious
Sakaigawa Rijicho is to fix the current status of trading "oyakata-kabu".
According to him, "oyakata-kabu" is not supposed to be sold or to buy in 
principle. He promissed to correct the issue by the end of this year. But
the problem is that the overwelming majority of current oyakata have 
bought their "oyakata-kabu" with much money. If they can't sell, they
will lose a big money in the overall "trade".

-Masumiriki