Yokozuna Kakuryu, winner of six Emperor’s Cups, has given up his Mongolian nationality and acquired Japanese citizenship, an official government publication reports.
By meeting the requirement to remain in the Japan Sumo Association as an elder after retirement, the 35-year-old will now be able to run his own stable of wrestlers after his active career has ended.
Actually, the Japanese nationality is not required to compete in sumo.
Citizenship is necessary if a wrestler wishes to become a sumo elder upon retirement and establish or inherit a stable.
Sumo: Mongolian-born yokozuna Kakuryu takes Japanese citizenship https://t.co/4eTqwx9J7e
— The Mainichi (Japan Daily News) (@themainichi) December 10, 2020
Kakuryu is the fourth foreign-born yokozuna to obtain Japanese citizenship after retired U.S.-born wrestlers Akebono and Musashimaru, and Mongolian-born Hakuho. He is still-active competitor who became a Japanese citizen last year.
Kakuryu fought out of the Izutsu stable when he started his sumo career in 2001. He was promoted to the highest rank of yokozuna in the spring of 2014, reports The Japan Times.
After the death of the Izutsu oyakata and closure of the Izutsu stable in September 2019, he moved to the Michinoku stable. Last month, he was given a “warning” by the Yokozuna Deliberation Council after sitting out the last three tournaments due to injury.
