Former Nihon University board chairman Hidetoshi Tanaka dies at 77

TOKYO (Kyodo) — Hidetoshi Tanaka, a former board chairman at Nihon University, one of Japan’s biggest universities, and known as an amateur sumo wrestler, has died, sources close to the matter said Saturday. He was 77.

A former student yokozuna at the university, where he entered in 1965 and started working following graduation, Tanaka in 1983 became director of the university’s sumo club and trained many sumo wrestlers who went on to become famous in that sport.

The Aomori Prefecture native became a board member of the university in 1999 and its chairman in 2008.

In recent years, he was at the center of a tax evasion scandal, being arrested in 2021. He subsequently resigned from his chairmanship post and was later given a one-year suspended prison sentence by the Tokyo District Court, along with a 13 million yen ($89,700) fine, for evading some 52 million yen in income tax.

He also served as vice president of the Japanese Olympic Committee for four years from 2013.