In lifting the Emperor's Cup last month, Mitakeumi became the fourth Japanese wrestler to win a championship in the past two years.
That's significant in a sport that had been utterly dominated by foreigners for the previous decade.
However even with the recent success of native-born fighters, non-Japanese wrestlers have still won 11 of the 15 tournaments since Kotoshogiku broke the 10-year drought in January 2016.
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