TOKYO — The Japan Sumo Association apologized Thursday after a sumo judge ordered women, including a physician, out of the ring while trying to administer first aid to the mayor after he ...

Sumo wrestling from Japan is among the world’s oldest sports, dating back at least 1,500 years. The rules are simple: square off with an opponent, in a ring lined with sand, then try to push the other ...

Sumo tournaments take place on a raised ring called a dohyo. The kanji characters for dohyo (土俵) literally translate as clay and rice straw bales — the two materials the ring is made of.

Japan’s first female governor, Fusae Ota of Osaka, tried and failed to convince the Japan Sumo Association to let her in the ring to crown the winner of a tournament in 2000.

TOKYO — The Japan Sumo Association apologized Thursday after a sumo judge ordered women, including a physician, out of the ring while trying to administer first aid to a mayor after he collapsed ...

Despite the barriers, women’s sumo has been around since the sport’s early days, according to Eiko Kaneda, a professor at the Nippon Sport Science University in Tokyo, Japan.

A new breed of Sumo wrestlers is stepping into the ring in Japan. Once ridiculed, Japanese females are throwing their weight around the sumo ring these days.

Foreigners are now dominating what was once among Japan’s purest and most sacred cultural bastions: sumo wrestling. The change has become a metaphor for a reluctantly globalizing Japan.

Anyone following the Japan Sumo Association’s various social media feeds over the past couple of days will know that the tearing down and rebuilding of the ring in Tokyo’s Ryogoku Kokugikan ...

Despite the barriers, women’s sumo has been around since the sport’s early days, according to Eiko Kaneda, a professor at the Nippon Sport Science University in Tokyo, Japan.