Yokozuna Kakuryu Gets Japanese Citizenship

Tokyo, Dec. 10 (Jiji Press)--Yokozuna grand champion Kakuryu, a Mongolian-born professional sumo wrestler, has acquired Japanese citizenship, an official Japanese government gazette showed Thursday.

A wrestler needs to have Japanese citizenship in order to remain in the Japan Sumo Association as a stablemaster after retirement.

In September last year, Mongolian-born yokozuna Hakuho obtained Japanese citizenship.

Foreign-born stablemasters include former yokozuna Musashimaru from Hawaii, former ozeki Kotooshu from Bulgaria and former sekiwake Kyokutenho from Mongolia.

Kakuryu, 35, whose real name is Mangaljalav Anand, made his sumo debut in 2001 and was promoted to yokozuna in 2014. He won his sixth grand tournament title in July 2019.

[Copyright The Jiji Press, Ltd.]