Tokyo’s dear leader Shintaro Ishihara’s latest discriminatory outburst has been to insult barbarian judo, saying it resembles “beasts brawling” and that the sport was ruined as soon as the hairy barbarians became involved.

The 79-year-old mayor of Tokyo complained about barbarian judoka at a recent civic meeting, probably annoyed at all the humiliating losses they have been handing to Japanese judo practitioners lately:

“The judo of westerners is like animals fighting, with its internationalisation judo has really lost something. In Brazil they eat chocolate and vinegared rice, but you couldn’t call it sushi. Judo ended up that.”

Whilst Ishihara has a long history of making discriminatory remarks about just about anyone (including the wretches who elected him 3 times) who is not a pure-blooded Japanese over the age of 60, the fact he is still making them even after Tokyo launched a bid for the 2020 Olympic games has attracted some comment – it is hard to see international judo authorities and the Olympic organisers taking his remarks well.

Amongst Japanese online the remarks have attracted a mixture of disgust and support:

“So much for the Tokyo Olympic bid.” “What an idiot. So he just ruined everything the people trying to lure the Olympics to Tokyo said, adding insult to racism. If Tokyo loses the bid, it’s his fault.” “He probably doesn’t want the bid to succeed. The more attempts they make the more money they can splash around their cronies trying to get it, if they actually get it they lose that.” “What does this old fool think judo is? He’s been reading too much manga…” “He really must be bitter about those losses.” “He doesn’t even know a thing about judo anyway.” “Just a Japanese monkey howling about the beating he received.” “I hope this old bastard dies sooner rather than later.” “Ishihara is no patriot, he is just an ugly racist and populist.” “Japan’s rightists and conservatives always blame anything which goes wrong on the outside. These idiots haven’t learned a thing from the days of the empire.” “All you filthy Koreans and anime otaku are really desperate, aren’t you?” “Judo has just become another style of wrestling anyway.” “Judo [柔道] and JUDO [in English] are now two different sports.” “Judo is about competing to master techniques, JUDO is just a competition of wrestlers trying to toss each other out of the ring.” “He’s right, these animal fights have nothing to do with inculcating bushido spirit!” “We should have Japanese judo and international judo and be done with it.” “Fake JUDO and traditional Japanese judo are two quite different things.” “Right, Japan should withdraw from the IJF and run its own judo organisation.” “I don’t get all you people going on about ‘judo’ vs ‘JUDO’…” “Just ban foreigners from judo, problem solved.” “How about ‘JUDO’ and ‘Galapagos judo’?” “The rules have been hijacked by foreigners so naturally they make it work against the Japanese.” “Conclusion: close Japan to the outside, no to foreigners and half-breeds!” “What does it say about Japanese judo that they keep losing to a bunch of brawling animals?” “I don’t think it is animals brawling or anything, but making judo into a sport seems to have robbed it of something – now it is all about victory at any cost, with any tactic.” “I suppose baseball and beisubooru are two different sports as well then?” “So he insults the Americans and Europeans he is trying to lure to Tokyo, and the other east Asians hated us from the start… this leaves us with the middle east and Africa? Great.” “This can be boiled down to the Japanese judoka not being good enough to adapt to the new environment.” “I want to hear what Putin has to say about this…” “The net right is seriously bitter about taking losses here, you can tell.” “We should be happy that a sport from Japan is so beloved the world over!” “The howls of another whipped dog!” “If a prefectural governor [Tokyo city is equivalent to a prefecture] is like this, you can pretty much guess what the cultural level of the people is.” “Given the level of the Japanese in these matters he seems a fitting match for us really.” “Somebody please translate this for the benefit of the Olympic organisers.” “Not more of this senile old racist’s mutterings…” “Just how intolerant is this guy?”