Judo students thrown to the ground for eating ice cream
Stand: 12:18 p.m. | Reading time: 2 minutes
Judo is very important in Japan. But the pressure to succeed for athletes has dramatic consequences
Quelle: dpa / Hiro Komae
Japan’s judo scene is notorious for violent training methods. Now a new case outrages the country. A teacher allegedly attacked two students who were eating from the refrigerator. One judoka suffered serious injuries.
Japan’s traditional martial arts judo hit the headlines again with a case of excessive use of force by a trainer. Japanese media reported on Tuesday that a 50-year-old AG teacher at a middle school in Hyogo Province was arrested for punishing two of his wards, one of whom he had seriously injured.
The two children ate ice cream from the refrigerator in the judo training hall, it said. Out of annoyance, her coach threw her to the ground so badly that one of the boys suffered serious injuries to his thoracic vertebrae, the other was slightly injured in the neck.
Japan’s judo world is known for military-style training methods and repeatedly faces accusations of violent punishment. In the past few decades there have been more than 100 deaths among judoka in schools.
Not the first beating scandal
According to a recent report by human rights organization Human Rights Watch, violence among Japanese children in sports, including judo, is widespread. Accordingly, many reported that they were beaten, kicked, slapped, thrown to the ground or attacked with objects while doing sports, it said.
In Japan, which plans to host the Olympic Games next year, the pressure to win medals and trophies is extremely high. Students and parents are often silent about the harsh methods of punishment. Not every violent coach is punished for their behavior.
After a beating scandal involving the then national judo coach Ryuji Sonoda, Japan’s National Olympic Committee announced in 2013 an investigation into all sports associations for similar offenses. Corporal punishment was banned by law last year. The Hyogo case shows that more needs to be done.
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