IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/bla/asiaec/v39y2025i4p446-468.html

Desperately seeking a Japanese Yokozuna

Author

Listed:
  • Giorgio Brunello
  • Eiji Yamamura

Abstract

Using data on wrestlers and tournaments since the early 1970s, we study promotion practices in Sumo, a Japanese traditional sport. We show that, especially since 2010, foreign‐born wrestlers trying to attain the second highest rank in Sumo were treated less favorably than Japanese‐born wrestlers. This differential treatment and the 2010 Reform which restricted access to foreign‐born wrestlers favored Japanese‐born wrestlers and could have contributed to the return of a Japanese Yokozuna in 2025.

Suggested Citation

  • Giorgio Brunello & Eiji Yamamura, 2025. "Desperately seeking a Japanese Yokozuna," Asian Economic Journal, East Asian Economic Association, vol. 39(4), pages 446-468, December.
    • Handle: RePEc:bla:asiaec:v:39:y:2025:i:4:p:446-468
    DOI: 10.1111/asej.70001
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://doi.org/10.1111/asej.70001
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1111/asej.70001?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    Other versions of this item:

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. is not listed on IDEAS
    2. Stuart Baumann & Carl Singleton, 2025. "They were Robbed! Scoring by the Middlemost to Attenuate Biased Judging in Boxing," Journal of Sports Economics, , vol. 26(7), pages 771-782, October.

    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • J40 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Particular Labor Markets - - - General
    • J71 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Labor Discrimination - - - Hiring and Firing

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:bla:asiaec:v:39:y:2025:i:4:p:446-468. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Wiley Content Delivery (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/eaeaaea.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.