Three sumo wrestlers from Russia have been dismissed on allegations of marijuana use and are set to sue the Japan Sumo Association over their dismissal. I feel that JSA is making these Russian wrestlers suffer for the bad press it has received because of recent scandals, including violence against sumo trainees and suspicions of rigged bouts.

I believe that JSA discrimination against foreign wrestlers dates all the way back to Konishiki's failure to be promoted to the position of Yokozuna (in the 1990s).

Sumo has been called Japan's national sport, but is it doing right to hold young sumo wrestlers from foreign countries to Japanese standards when the wrestlers have not been educated in the Japanese language, culture or ethics?

Although JSA, under pressure from the education ministry, has accepted the idea of bringing on board members from the outside, the selected board members seem to be functioning as effective tools for the prospective court trial.

With regard to that trial, sudden urine checks for marijuana use were not necessarily appropriate. One Japanese wrestler did not show, and it is said that another Japanese wrestler initially tested positive. Meanwhile, the wrestlers who contributed to the beating death of another young wrestler last year were only suspended from sumo activities -- not dismissed -- pending a court ruling on their guilt or innocence.

So, which is a worse problem in the sumo world? Violence leading to death, the possibility of rigged bouts that could profit outlaw gambling groups, or wrestlers' smoking of marijuana? From a medical viewpoint, cannabis is not as harmful and addictive as many psychotropic drugs.

The issue at the trial should be the consistency and rationality of the wrestlers' dismissal. I hope the Japanese court's decision is broad enough to serve as the starting point for the internationalization of sumo wrestling in a true sense.

ryushi shimoyama, m.d.