Regarding “Kisenosato promoted to sumo’s highest rank” (Jan. 26), for Japanese sumo fans this must be a huge relief.

There’s only one problem. For years, Japanese people have been voicing concern that foreign sumo wrestlers are dominating the sport. They’re too strong and Japanese wrestlers can’t compete with them. There was even talk of splitting Japanese and foreigners. I always thought this was ridiculous. First of all it’s borderline racist. If not, it’s definitely an enormous inferiority complex. For the Japan Sumo Association to bow down and admit defeat to all foreign-born wrestlers would be a disgrace to sumo.

Kisenosato proved that a Japanese wrestler can win. However, there will be long and heated debates over the fact that he won with two yokozuna and one ozeki out of the competition, which gave him a huge advantage.

But overall Kisenosato still proved he can win by defeating Hakuho. He won his first tournament and proved that Japanese wrestlers can compete at a high level. All of this talk of a foreigners’ league should dissipate now that Kisenosato is officially a yokozuna.

EDOGAWA WARD, TOKYO

The opinions expressed in this letter to the editor are the writer’s own and do not necessarily reflect the policies of The Japan Times.