The Japan Sumo Association said Tuesday that sumo elder Nishiiwa will succeed Naruto, who died a day earlier of respiratory failure, as coach of the scandal-hit stable.
The JSA held an emergency board meeting to discuss the future of the Naruto stable following the sudden death of the 59-year-old Naruto, who had been under investigation by the association over a magazine report that said he had abused his apprentices.
Nishiiwa, 35, whose wrestling name was Takanotsuru, will assume the stablemaster name Naruto.
The JSA said the probe into the late Naruto, who the magazine article accuses of once beating a former apprentice with a block of wood and injecting Czech-born wrestler Takanoyama with insulin in an attempt to increase his body weight, would be called off in the wake of the sumo elder's death.