Speaker 1:

He is the last of the ninjas. The sole custodian of hundreds of years of tradition. But this 70 year old is watching Japanese tradition slowly die.

[inaudible]

Masaaki Hatsumi is an expert in the art of assassination.

Masaaki Hatsumi:

[foreign language]

[crosstalk]

Speaker 1:

At his training school, students come to learn the 36 deadly techniques. But the vast bulk of Hatsumi's students are foreigners.

Masaaki Hatsumi:

[foreign language]

Speaker 1:

The ninja master says interest in ninjutsu has all but dried up for Japanese.

Masaaki Hatsumi:

[foreign language]

Speaker 1:

And Hatsumi has a prophecy.

Masaaki Hatsumi:

[foreign language]

Speaker 1:

Nothing could be more traditional than the art of Sumo wrestling. But it's in trouble- on the ropes. And just as the ninja master prophesizes, it's people are dying. But in sumos case, just how and why they die is a peculiarly Japanese mystery.

This is a sumo stable: a house where wrestlers live and train in Spartan conditions.

Sumo wrestler:

[foreign language]

[crosstalk]

Speaker 1:

The stables are the last outposts of feudalism in Japan. Junior wrestlers perform menial tasks for their seniors, and ancient Japanese hierarchy is strictly observed.

Sumo wrestler:

[foreign language]

Speaker 1:

Japan's highest ranked sumo wrestler is this man: Akebono. Traditionalists are appalled by his success; not because Akebono isn't good, but because he isn't Japanese. Japan's best known wrestler is American, born and raised in Hawaii.

Sumo wrestler:

[foreign language]

Speaker 1:

For Akebono, succeeding at the sport was relatively easy, compared with understanding its time honoured complexities.

Akebono:

[crosstalk] The Japanese have a hard time understanding this, so for somebody being out of Japan and coming- I've been here 13 years and trying- I still cannot understand.

Speaker 5:

[foreign language inaudible]

Speaker 1:

The origins of the [inaudible] sumo society go back more than 2,000 years, and was always much more than sport or entertainment.

Speaker 6:

[crosstalk]

Speaker 1:

A ritual [inaudible] sumo is closely associated with Shinto. It was said to embody Japan's national spirit. Its emphasis on hierarchy, respect, and tradition.

But for the modern, young Japanese warrior, there are more worldly and more Western interests. Sumo is being pushed aside.

Speaker 7:

[foreign language]

Speaker 1:

Tournaments like this one are rare these days. The number of schoolchildren wrestling is down more than one third on ten 10 years ago.

Speaker 7:

[foreign language inaudible]

Speaker 1:

There are 100 times as many children playing soccer and baseball as there are wrestling.

Speaker 7:

[foreign language inaudible]

Speaker 1:

Throughout Japanese society, the lure of the loincloth is losing its appeal. These students at the Tokyo University Sumo club are finding it increasingly difficult to attract new members.

For the first time, seats are going unsold at sumo tournaments, and TV ratings are slipping. [foreign language crosstalk]

More disturbing, there are accusations that sumo has been contaminated with Western values like corruption, and that this centuries old ritual is nothing but a performance, with no more integrity than world championship wrestling.

Speaker 8:

[foreign language inaudible]

Speaker 1:

For the first time in sumo history, the code of silence among participants is being broken. Former wrestler, now persona [inaudible] this man, Itai, is at the centre of the scandal.

Speaker 8:

[foreign language inaudible]

Speaker 1:

The first suggestion there was something rotten in the sumo world surfaced in Nagoya, industrial town two hours by bullet train south of Tokyo. This modern Japan is a world apart from the one in which these people's ancestors first drew circles in the village earth and wrestled.

Kionari H.:

[foreigh language inaudible]

Speaker 1:

In 1996 this man's father, Soichiro Hashimoto, a former sumo wrestler and a stable master called the Naruto stunned the sumo establishment with a series of sensational allegations. They claimed sumo had close links to the Yakuza, the Japanese mafia, and accused wrestlers of regularly fixing matches for money, taking drugs, holding orgies, and dodging their taxes.

The two men promise to reveal more in a book, and agreed to address the foreign media at the Tokyo Press Club.

Kionari H.:

[foreign languageinaudible]

Speaker 1:

When Hashimoto fell ill, he was brought here to this hospital outside Nagoya. The next day his friend [inaudible] came to visit, and suddenly he too, got sick. Both men died within a few hours of each other.

The doctor said the cause of their deaths was a "mystery disease". Remarkably, there was no autopsy and no police investigation.

A story like the death of two high-profile whistle-blowers would hae received front page coverage in the West. But in the cosy world of sumo, the issue received no attention in the mainstream Japanese media.

Andy Adams:

You would think that one of the Japanese weeklies at least would check into it and really start questioning, but, never happened.

Speaker 1:

After watching and writing about sumo for 40 years, Andy Adams is not really surprised.

Andy Adams:

I think it's part of the Japanese character that these things go on and the Japanese feel it was better not to pursue it and ask questions about it and just ignore it and this happens a lot and ... this is a part of the Japanese character.

Sumo Announcer:

[foreign language inaudible]

Speaker 1:

One reason an investigation never happened, is that few in Japan are prepared to challenge the authority of the Sumo Association, the mysterious and connected body that controls every aspect of the sport.

We made repeated requests for an interview with the association, but getting a straight answer proved harder than toppling a sumo wrestler.

Speaker 12:

[foreign language inaudible]

Speaker 1:

Inside this stadium is one of the years major Sumo tournaments, but this is the closest we were allowed to get, outside. We were quickly moved on.

Speaker 13:

[foreign language inaudible]

Speaker 1:

Even filming lower ranked sumos on the street requires the permission of the all-powerful association.

Andy Adams:

It's all-powerful because it's make up of ex-sumo wrestlers themselves and there's no outside interference. It's only the ex-wrestlers.

Speaker 1:

But the bigger they are the harder they fall, and now perhaps for the first time in its history, the sumo association is being pushed onto the back foot. [crosstalk]

It's being dealt another body blow by one of its own, a former wrestler Hitay, who's gone public admitting he rigged sumo bouts and claiming the vast majority of sumo matches are fixed. [crosstalk]

The latest allegations force the sumo association to defend itself

Speaker 14:

[foreign language inaudible]

Speaker 1:

We wanted to track Hitay down to question him, but after making his allegations Mr. Hitay disappeared.

In Tokyo its not hard to lose yourself in the crowd. Hitay was well aware what fate can befall whistle blowers. His former stable master was Inaruto, one of the men allegedly murdered in Nagoya. Since retiring from wrestling, Hitay has run a restaurant. We went there, and were served up a story that he had gone on a fishing trip in the country- indefinitely.

After weeks of phone calls we received word through an intermediary that Mr. Hitay would talk to us on condition that the story was never broadcast in Japan.

An interview was arranged on the outskirts of Tokyo.

Hitay:

[foreign language inaudible]

Speaker 1:

Hitay repeated and elaborated on his claims, telling us that up to 80% of professional sumo bouts were rigged with the wrestlers paying their opponents up to 700,000¥ or six and a half thousand U.S. dollars, to take a fall.

Hitay:

[foreign language inaudible]

Speaker 1:

To back up his claims of conspiracy, Hitay produced an audio recording of a high-ranking official, which he says proves the sumo association itself was aware of the bout rigging.[foreign language crosstalk]

Audio recording:

[foreign language inaudible]

Speaker 1:

Hitay went on to name names, giving us a list of sumos who ha said had fixed bouts with him. The list contains some of the biggest wrestlers in sumo, including the sport's superstar, Akebono.

Akebono:

All I have to say on the subject is like you've seen today we come out we work hard everyday, it's unthinkable. I never seen anybody do it or heard of anybody doing it. But, [inaudible] every time there's something good going on there's always somebody trying to bring it down.

Speaker 1:

The fact that we were asking questions the sumo world wasn't used to being asked did not go unnoticed. Suddenly, after numerous faxes and dozens of phone calls, the sumo association granted us an interview with a man who controls every aspect of the sumo empire.

Chairman:

[foreign language inaudible]

Speaker 1:

The chairman insisted on the moral virtue of the sumo world, and once again denied any match fixing.

Chairman:

[foreign language inaudible]

Ichiro Nitta:

[foreign language inaudible]

Speaker 1:

But some say the dark side of sumo is not new. That indeed, it is rooted in the very history of the sport.

Ichiro Nitta:

[foreign language inaudible]

Speaker 1:

Ichiro Nitta is a professor of history at Tokyo University.

Ichiro Nitta:

[foreign language inaudible]

Speaker 1:

Professor Nitta claims that sumos links with the Japanese mafia remain.

Ichiro Nitta:

[foreign language inaudible]

Speaker 1:

No one is more convinced of that relationship than Kionari Hashimoto. The latest allegations simply confirm what he has suspected all along; that his father was murdered.

Kionari H.:

[foreign language inaudible]

Speaker 1:

It is unlikely that the truth of any of these matters will be known. The press is disinterested, the public doesn't really care. While some traditions may be under threat, one is alive and thriving; the Japanese code of silence.