Japanese Judo Smackdown

Corporal punishment is alive and well in Japanese Olympic Judo training facilities. At least it was leading up to the London Olympics.

Head coach, Ryuji Sonoda, has been answering to the media and the Japanese Olympic committee about accusations of abuse of his judokas. He’s accused of slapping them in the face and whacking them with bamboo swords.

Big hugs to the Japanese judo team, who didn’t have it easy in London, and now we hear get roughed up by their coaches. In recent years, there has been criticism of the decline in Japanese judo as other nations have been developing more gold medal stars. Smacking the female stars of the national sport can’t be helping to boost morale.