Sumo
Japan

Sumo is also practised as an amateur sport in Japan, with participants in college, high school, grade school or company workers on works teams. Open amateur tournaments are also held. The sport at this level is stripped of most of the ceremony. Most new entries into professional sumo are junior high school graduates with little to no previous experience, but the number of wrestlers with a collegiate background in the sport has been increasing over the past few decades. The International Herald Tribune reported on this trend in November 1999, when more than a third of the wrestlers in the top two divisions were university graduates. Nippon Sport Science University and Nihon University are the colleges that have produced the most professional sumo wrestlers. The latter produced Hiroshi Wajima, who in 1973 became the first, and remains the only, wrestler with a collegiate background to attain the rank of yokozuna.

The most successful amateur wrestlers (usually college champions) are allowed to enter professional sumo at makushita (third division) or sandanme (fourth division) rather than from the very bottom of the ladder. These ranks are called makushita tsukedashi and sandanme tsukedashi, and are currently equivalent to makushita 10, makushita 15, or sandanme 100 depending on the level of amateur success achieved. All amateur athletes entering the professional ranks must be under 23 to satisfy the entry, except those who qualify for makushita tsukedashi or sandanme tsukedashi, who may be up to 25.
keywords:letter_frequency, startend:end_checker