In news widely reported by various sources including Nikkan Sports, Hochi Sports and in English by YouTube channel Chris Sumo, the Japan Sumo Association has handed down various punishments to Kise Beya over disciplinary issues, or apparent lack thereof, stemming from incidents of violence between two unnamed wrestlers over apparent theft.
First, the current Kise stablemaster has been DEMOTED to the lowest level of elders/stablemasters, essentially a 2 step demotion that pretty muich ends any hopes he had of an executive position in upcoming elections. Second, one of the two so-far unnamed wrestlers, who retaliated against the second unnamed wrestler who stole money from his wallet, was given a 2 TOURNAMENT SUSPENSION for retaliatory violence (punching the other repeatedly in the head) but has instead opted to retire. The Association tends to reveal retired wrestlers later on their website and mobile app, if they do we may find out who it is/was but all we know now is it was a lower tier wrestler and not Makuuchi or Juryo (meaning not one of their well-known top guys like Ura or Kinbozan). The thief & violence victim gets NO PUNISHMENT. Chris Sumo suggested perhaps he could have gotten, at worst, a 5 match suspension which for a lower tier wrestler would have meant most of the January Tournament.
In response, Kise Beya has posted a short video on their YouTube channel, the description of which translates loosely as an apology and vow to do better as well as asking for fans to be respectful in the comments on YouTube & Instagram (an presumably LINE, the Japanese messaging service that almost everyone in Japan uses). Unfortunately this is apparently not uncommon despite all we see on YouTube (especially as more stables join, Otake & Misashigawa Beya are among those who recently started channels and Tatsunami Beya recently received a Silver Play Button for over 100K subscribers) so we’ll see what happens going forward. We’ll also see if they do reveal who retired as a result.