Mobile phones banned for sumo 'rehab' event

Wrestlers will have mobile phones confiscated while sumo officials are set to check for any smuggled through security at a make-or-break test tournament beginning on Sunday.

After discovered text messages confirmed suspicions of match-fixing which led to 25 wrestlers and trainers being booted out of Japan's ancient sport, the Japan Sumo Association (JSA) is taking no chances for the two-week event in Tokyo.

"I want all the wrestlers to climb on the ring and show pride and fighting spirit out of respect for those who died (in the March 11 earthquake and tsunami)," former 'yokozuna' grand champion Takanohana told reporters on Friday.

The recent match-fixing scandal prompted the JSA to cancel the summer grand tournament, following several unsavoury crises including gambling, drug use and assault cases.

Former Mongolian yokozuna Asashoryu brought some rare colour to the sumo world with his oddball behaviour, famously picking a soapy punch-up with a rival as they soaked in bath.

However, subsequent bouts of depression and finally accusations of a drunken assault outside a Tokyo nightclub were the final straw and he was forced out in early 2010.

His countryman Hakuho, the sport's lone yokozuna, has admitted he was finding it hard to get motivated for an event in which no Emperor's Cup will be awarded.

"It's not a real tournament," said the Mongolian, who has won the last six major events and was closing in on Asashoryu's record of seven before the summer dust-up was scrapped.

"The results don't count here. I have a responsibility as yokozuna."

Two security inspectors will patrol the locker rooms at the test event, checking for mobile phones or other signs that could be seen as suspicious or linked to match-fixing, the JSA said.

Sumo's privileged position of enjoying special tax breaks could be at risk unless the sport, which dates back around 2,000 years, cleans up its act quickly.

"We are still examining cellphones," said JSA chairman Hanaregoma, referring to the latest probe.

"I think that everything is in order," he added, a government warning over the recent scandals disgracing sumo still ringing in his ears.