The Japan Sumo Association will conduct antibody tests, which can show whether a person has ever been infected with the new coronavirus, on all of its about 1,000 members, including sumo wrestlers, referees and yobidashi callers, it was learned Wednesday.
The testing will start early next week, with all results expected to be known by the end of June. It will be the first case of such large-scale antibody testing in the Japanese sports world.
After the declaration of a national state of emergency was extended, the association canceled this year's summer tournament, which had been slated for later this month at the Ryogoku Kokugikan in Tokyo. It now aims to hold the July tournament without spectators while moving the venue from Nagoya to Tokyo. The association intends to use the results of the tests to prepare measures to hold future tournaments by determining the extent of infections in the sumo world.
Antibody tests are designed to examine whether a test taker has a history of infection with viruses or other pathogens. Antibody tests, in which the presence of antibodies can be determined in a short period of time with a small amount of blood, are simpler than polymerase chain reaction (PCR) tests, which require special equipment and take four to six hours to produce results. Antibody tests can play a role in understanding the overall infection situation.
The association will ask a specialized institution to set the date and time for each sumo stable to give blood samples. The condition of those taking the tests will be checked before testing. With this information also taken into consideration, people who took the tests will be categorized into three groups: uninfected, newly infected or recovered. The association intends to have those found to be newly infected take PCR tests. Among association members, seven people, including stablemaster Takadagawa (formerly the sekiwake Akinoshima) and juryo Hakuyozan, have been confirmed to have the virus since April. The association hopes to dispel concerns affecting the daily life and training of its members, and take countermeasures by using the test results to understand the situation in the sumo world as a whole.
"In sumo, a contact sport in which wrestlers fiercely clash, it is greatly significant to conduct antibody tests to confirm their history of infections," said Prof. Mitsuo Kaku of Tohoku Medical and Pharmaceutical University, who specializes in infection control. "The results of the tests could be useful in operations for other professional sports and the Olympics."
"The antibody tests have issues such as their accuracy. But if symptoms are present, the accuracy can be enhanced by also using other types of testing," he added.
The use of antibody tests has spread in the United States, Europe and elsewhere. In the sports industry, for example, about 5,700 people, including employees of Major League Baseball teams in the United States, took antibody tests in mid-April with cooperation from their teams.
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