Sumo diplomacy: Japan’s heavyweight ‘soft power’ ambassadors

In 1973, wrestlers travelled to Beijing to celebrate the previous year’s establishment of diplomatic relations between Japan and Mao Zedong’s China.

China, in turn, exercised its “panda diplomacy” by sending two bears to Tokyo.

With relations now at a low point — Japan’s last two pandas returned to China on Tuesday — a sumo tour would no longer have the same impact, says Erik Esselstrom, professor of history at the University of Vermont.

At the time, China “was relatively weak and Japan quite strong” economically, and the two countries were “in a moment of rediscovery”, he said.

Overseas trips became rare over the past two decades as the sumo association refocused on its domestic audiences while the sport’s popularity waned, partly due to a series of scandals.

The Covid-19 pandemic then prevented travel abroad.

Yasutoshi Nakadachi, a former wrestler and organiser of the Paris trip, said the JSA was in a “complicated situation”, and also had a lack of interest from foreign countries.

– ‘Not entertainment’ –

The context is now very different, with Japan welcoming a record number of tourists in 2025.