Not our fault. The devil made us do it.

I missed this somehow, but it is still a shock.

It should not be, as I remember that it took the police an extraordinarily long time decide whether to make an arrest. I recall that they even had a tough time determining that the teenage victim of the beating had suffered anything other than the normal bruises and injuries of ordinary sumo practice. In fact, his death was initially ruled as due to heart failure.

The three sumo wrestlers who beat the boy to death were given "suspended sentences" and they weren't even company executives.. They were, in effect, let off.

Early last year when the police finally made the arrests---after the family questioned how the bruised battered body of their son did not raise any suspicions of foul play---the father was quoted as saying:

"I do understand that the master's orders are absolute, so maybe they couldn't help it, but if they had reconsidered, this would not have happened."

The judge in this case only half agreed.

Despite the fears of the old boys running sumo, it is not the foreign wrestlers who are ruining the sport.