(Photo/Kyodo News)
Kenji Maruyama (58), a former Japanese judo representative at the 1992 Barcelona Olympics and current instructor, was arrested by Chiba Prefectural Police on February 29 on suspicion of fraud.
According to investigators, six years ago, Maruyama recommended a crypto asset called “One Coin,” which is no longer traded, to an elderly woman in Chiba Prefecture, claiming that its value would increase, and gave her about 40 million yen in cash. He is suspected of defrauding them.
“Suspect Maruyama is believed to have made women trust him based on his experience of participating in the Olympics, etc., and is said to have entrusted them with a total of approximately 400 million yen.The money he defrauded was used for gambling overseas. However, his love of gambling was well-known even when he was a player on the team, and he apparently became addicted to overseas casinos from around that time.” (Reporter of the incident)
[Related article: Report of Yasuo Inoue’s “secret meeting with a married woman at a hotel.” His path to becoming “JOC president” was cut short due to his betrayal of his wife, Aki Higashihara]
A sports reporter talks about Maruyama’s accomplishments as a judoka.
“Suspect Maruyama started judo at the age of 5 and went on to Kokushikan High School and Kokushikan University. After graduating from university in 1988 and joining Daikoro, he won the championship in the individual business competition, and in 1992 he competed in the France International and Bulgaria. He won the International and Kodokan Cups in quick succession.He placed 7th in the men’s 65kg judo class at the Barcelona Olympics, where he represented Japan.His special technique was the modified Sode Tsurikomi-goi, which was called the “Maruyama Special.” It was so much that all the judo players of the time imitated it.
Maruyama also holds junior high school and high school teaching licenses, and in 1999 opened a judo hall called Taizan Gakusha in Fukuoka Prefecture. After his retirement, while running a cosmetics company, he continued to teach the next generation of Olympic athletes at Taizan Gakusha.” (Sports reporter)
Maruyama’s two sons were both known to fans as powerful judo athletes.
“My eldest son, Goki, retired from active sport in 2023, but my second son, Shiro Shiro, won the world championship twice and is known to judo fans as Hifumi Abe’s mortal rival. The two have competed in the finals of the men’s 66 kg class for two years in a row at the 2022 World Championships (Uzbekistan) and 2023 World Championships (Doha).” (Same as previous)
Their total record is Joshiro Maruyama’s 4 wins and 7 losses (as of March 2024). Maruyama is currently on a four-game losing streak, but he won the 2019 World Championship in Tokyo by defeating Abe in the semifinals. However, a martial arts writer who was covering the tournament said he sensed a strange atmosphere at the scene.
“It was strange that none of the Japan national judo coaches congratulated Maruyama on his way back to the waiting room from the mixed zone after winning the championship.” A person who was also at the scene said this. When I asked him about it, I learned that his father had a bad reputation.Even back then, he was known for his shady business.
The second son, Shiro Shiro, was in a fierce competition with Abe to represent the Olympic team at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics and Paris Olympics, but even during this time, he was hearing about his father’s bad reputation, and he has become a member of the judo world. There was naturally a mood of “Abe in favor”. Before the Tokyo Olympics, there were rumors in the judo world that Joshirō had been refused entry into the All-Judo Federation’s national team due to his father’s bad reputation.
On his Instagram, Maruyama explained the origin of the name “Taizan Gakusha” as follows: ・The name of Professor Yasufumi Koyama of Kokushikan University ・The name of Professor Yasuhiro Yamashita, the coach of the national team, from two common letters. However, it ended up smearing mud on the faces of the two.
( SmartFLASH
)
2024-03-01 21:01:55
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