A female Japanese mayor was barred today from delivering a speech inside a sumo ring a day after controversy erupted over a longstanding ban on women entering the sports rings.
Yesterday Japan's sumo association chief made headlines at home and abroad after issuing an apology to several women who were ordered out of a sumo ring while trying to offer life-saving medical assistance.
Women are traditionally banned from sumo rings, which are sacred spaces in the Shinto religion from which the sport emerged, because they are considered "ritually unclean".
Today mayor Tomoko Nakagawa from the western city of Takarazuka slammed a decision to prevent her from delivering a speech from a sumo ring, something her male counterparts have regularly done.
"I'm a female mayor but I am a human being," she said in a speech delivered from a podium sited outside the ring.
"But because I am a woman, despite being a mayor, I cannot make a speech in the ring."
"Isn't it important to have the courage to reform while keeping tradition?"