八百長

やっぱりやっていましたね。相撲の八百長。

ヤバい経済学 [増補改訂版]

本書の中で、相撲の取り組みを分析して『八百長があるのでは』と指摘されていたが、それが証明された訳だ。
（例えば、千秋楽に勝ち越しが決まる取り組みがあれば、翌場所の同じ取り組みでは、相手が勝つ勝率が異常に高いなど）
著者のSteven David Levitt氏も早速コメントしているが、やはり驚いてはいないようですね。

I can’t say that I am surprised by the latest sumo headline from The Associated Press:

Japan’s scandal-tainted sport of sumo wrestling is facing new allegations that senior wrestlers used cell phones to plan how to fix matches.

Japanese media reported Wednesday that police have found suspicious text messages on several wrestlers’ phones suggesting they were planning to fix bouts and going so far as to detail how one would attack and how he wanted his opponent to fall.

The text messages were found on the phones of wrestlers in sumo’s second-highest division. Japan’s Kyodo news service says the texts indicate that the wrestlers routinely fixed bouts and charged hundreds of thousands of yen (thousands of dollars) per match to do so.

I wonder why the police were looking at the cell phones of the wrestlers? Is it illegal to throw a match in sumo? I wouldn’t think so. They must have been after something else.

力士だけでなく親方や関係者全員の携帯やＰＣのフォレンジック調査はもちろんのこと、著者が分析した同様の方法で、過去の取組データについても調査（証跡としては難しいとは思うが）するなどして、膿を洗い出して欲しいところですね。