The twin tragedies of this month sent shock waves through Japanese boxing, with the authorities fighting to investigate and under pressure to tighten security.
Drastic weight loss, fierce combat and lax regulation have created a dangerous atmosphere in Japanese boxing, since sport fights for their future in the country after two combatants died.
The Super Weight Weight Shigetoshi Kotari and Hiromasa Urakawa, both 28 years old, fought against separate episodes on the same card in the Korakuen Hall in Tokyo on August 2 and died days later after a brain surgery.
Another Japanese boxer died after a fight in Tokyo in December 2023 and one more has been in a coma since May of this year.
The twin tragedies of this month sent shock waves through Japanese boxing, with the authorities fighting to investigate and under pressure to tighten security.
Although no clear causes of the deaths have been identified, several factors have emerged that paint a high risk image of the Japan boxing scene.
“I think it is safe, but the results are everything,” said Hideyuki Ohashi, manager and promoter of the undisputed world champion Super Bantam -Naoya Naoya Inoue, AFP.
“Three people have died (since December 2023) and that is nothing to be proud.”
After the last deaths, the governing body, the Japan Boxing Commission (JBC) held emergency meetings with the Pro Pro Pro Japan Boxing Association (JPBA), which represents the owners of boxing gyms.
A problem under the microscope is the practice of boxers dehydrating to lose weight rapidly before weighing, and then put it again before a fight.
The practice is considered a factor to make the brain more susceptible to bleeding, says the World Boxing Association.
JBC general secretary, Tsuyoshi Yasukochi, says that practice, which is also common in other countries, has only widespread in Japan in recent years and its “security is not completely understood.”
“We carry out dehydration classes last year, where the figure we present was two to four percent (of the body weight of a boxer) at most,” he said AFP.
“Japanese boxers today lose 10 to 12 % in just a few days. I think that is very dangerous.”
Total attack
Unlike Great Britain, where authorities can prohibit combatants who use saunas to dehydrate, Japanese boxing officials can only warn combatants whose weight changes drastically between a weighing and a fight.
Officials in Japan are proposing a rule that forces those who recover more than 10 percent of their body weight to raise a class for their next fight.
There is no uniform rule in world boxing about how much weight a fighter can lose and then turn on again.
The JPBA says that more data must be analyzed before a conclusion can be reached about the best way to address them.
“What happens if we apply a rule in which a fighter cannot gain more than 10 percent of their weight and then enter a fight for the world title in which someone who this rule does not apply to?” said JPBA official and the owner of the Kazuhiro Ryuko gym.
“It makes useless aim at the top and, in fact, it only increases the risks.”
Other security measures in consideration include combat restrictions, which JBC chief Yasukochi says that it is “much more intense” in Japan than in other countries.
He says that typifies the attitude of Japanese boxers, that “they never give up, whatever happens.”
He also believes that more Japanese fighters are focusing on the attack on the expense of the construction of defensive skills.
“Japanese boxers attack from the first round, it is not about strategies and take their time,” said Yasukochi.
“As soon as the bell sounds, they enter directly and attack.
“That has become the main approach and I think it is a reason why they receive harm.”
Lost trust
Boxing in Japan has a history of more than 100 years and has developed in different ways in other countries in some aspects.
All those involved in sport in the country, from combatants to coaches and managers, must belong to a boxing club, of which there are more than 150 in Tokyo alone.
Clubs must request the JBC for the licenses of the members and Yasukochi says that historically the requests have been stagnant of little of little scrutiny due to a “long -standing confidence relationship.”
After the last deaths, he says that more strict supervision should be introduced.
“I feel that this trust is gradually lost,” said Yasukochi.
The JBC and JPBA hope to announce concrete security measures in September, with problems that include ambulance availability and the use of magnetic resonance scans also in discussion.
All parties have emphasized the need to act quickly and admit that the future of Japanese boxing is at stake.
“I think it is really difficult to reduce the amount of accidents to zero,” said JPBA officer and the owner of the Ryuko gym.
“But the JPBA, the JBC and all those involved in the boxing must think about how to do it as close as possible.”
