Death of the genius who was called “the next Naoya Inoue”…Father’s heartbreaking cry: “I hope his gym will reveal the truth.
There is a prodigy boxer who was called “the next Naoya Inoue,” but passed away last year at the age of just 20. His name is Kaname Sakama. In the first part of this article, we will introduce the story of Kaname Sakama, who tried to participate in his gym’s event scheduled for March 18 last year, despite being injured. In the first part of this report, we reported on Kanamu’s final decision to die.
Part 1: The young boxer who was called “the next Naoya Inoue” had died… Click here for the truth behind his death, which continues to be hidden, and the darkness that lies in the world of boxing.
In the second part, we will look into the “questionable handling” of Kaname’s gym at the time of his death and the cover-up that has taken root in the boxing world, based on the testimony of his father, Ippei.
The president asked for money at every opportunity.
Ippei, who had seen Kanamu struggle with weight loss after his injury, felt that forcing Kanamu to participate in the tournament would endanger his life, so he directly appealed to Mr. X, the chairman of World Sports.
After 10:30 p.m. on March 15, I sent a message to Mr. X saying, “I still can’t lose weight. I’m retiring you. I will retire. Mr. X then made a voice call to me and suggested, ‘Let’s hit the mitts at the gym and lose weight.
In fact, even before that, I had become distrustful of Mr. X’s words and actions. Whenever Mr. X contacted me, it was always about money, not about the dream, such as, “We are looking for an advertising sponsor for the pamphlet of the match in March,” or “We want you to split the cost of 300,000 yen for 30 cheering banners to be used at the entrance of the players. To begin with, none of the people at World Sports were taking care of Kanamu’s weight loss or physical condition. I was getting angry, wondering on what basis they were saying ‘I can drop him’ when they didn’t know how much that guy was suffering.
At the time, Kanamu was living alone in an apartment within walking distance of his parents’ house. The last time Mr. Ippei saw Kanamu was on the night of March 15 of last year. Ippei strongly regrets that he sent Kanamu back to his apartment that day, when she was in an extreme state, and that he could not cancel the match in advance and was forced into it by World Sports.
Kanamu was a really single-minded guy, more competitive than anyone else, and a serious son of a bitch,” he said. He never once showed any weakness to me or my wife. That’s why he would never have cut himself off and said, ‘I want you to cancel the match. It was impossible for the people at World Sports to have been unaware of Kanamu’s character.
In other words, as long as he did not say anything, under the circumstances, the decision to cancel the match could only have been made by Mr. X, the chairman of World Sports. Why did Mr. X continue to insist on the forced entry and not make the decision to cancel the match? I have big doubts about this point, and at the same time, I feel that it is unforgivable.”
Mr. Kanamu disappeared without a trace on March 16 of last year.
The following day, March 17, after 1:00 p.m., Ippei finally met Kanamu at the mortuary in the Futtsu Police Station.
The officer in charge at the police station was surprised, saying, ‘Normally, someone who jumps off the precipice of Mt. Sawtooth wouldn’t be found in such a clean state. Kanamu’s body was virtually undamaged. That was the only saving grace for the family.”
Ippei is also upset about World Sport’s inexplicable response after Kanamu’s death. On April 18 of last year, Ippei and his wife, Keiko, cooperated with the JBC, which oversees domestic tournaments, in a hearing, where they discovered that Mr. X had made false reports to JBC officials.
When the JBC staff was concerned about Kaname’s failure to show up for the weigh-in on the 17th, the day before the match, he reported that he wanted to cancel the match due to a fever,” the JBC official said. At that time, Kanamu was already missing and a missing persons report was filed with the police. I informed Mr. X of this fact at least after 1:00 p.m. on March 16, and at around 3:00 p.m. that day, Mr. X visited Kanamu at his apartment, which was completely deserted.
Mr. X also came to the vicinity of the Sawtooth Mountain site on the night of the 16th, but even then he was chatting with the staff who accompanied him, and no sense of urgency was felt at all. Furthermore, our family has not concealed the cause of Kanamu’s death to this day, but Mr. X initially avoided disclosing the fact to the media, saying that he had been unable to contact his family. After that, he never officially announced the fact of Kanamu’s death, and we can only assume that he is trying to sweep the matter under the rug.
Was the response appropriate?
More than a year and three months have passed since then. Ippei talks about his current state of mind.
All we want from World Sport, the JBC, and the Japan Professional Boxing Association is to know the truth behind Kanamu’s extreme decision. Why was he driven to that point, and was World Sports at fault? ……
On the other hand, I also hope that the boxing world as a whole will take Kanamu’s death seriously and think about the safety management of athletes. To be honest, I felt that the boxing world has not learned anything from Kaname’s death. I think the boxing world is just sitting back and letting the tragedy that happened to Kanamu repeat itself.
In May of last year, Ippei, through his lawyer, demanded that the JBC investigate the truth and take measures to prevent a recurrence. However, no concrete progress has been made, he said.
The JBC and the Japan Professional Boxing Association have been consistently silent since Kanamu’s death. One year and three months have passed since Kanamu’s death, and what this silence means is that ‘the consensus in the boxing world is that Mr. X and World Sports were not at fault at all. I feel both anger and despair that unless they make a serious move on this matter, things will not progress.
Still, we as a family will never give up for Kanamu. As the Sakama family, we will continue to tell only the truth and want as many people as possible to know about Kanamu’s case. That is the consensus of the Sakama family.
When we asked Mr. X, through his attorney, why he did not cancel the match for Kanamu, who had serious injuries on her right fist and left leg and was struggling with weight loss, he gave us the following answer.
Mr. X, through his attorney, asked Mr. X whether he had not cancelled the match for Kaname, who was suffering from a serious weight-loss injury. In addition to this, we have taken into consideration the condition of Sakama’s right fist, the state of his training, his own wishes, the schedule of the match, and various other circumstances before deciding to allow him to compete.
(Regarding the left foot injury) The gym did not receive any report of pain in Sakama’s left foot on March 8, 2012. Furthermore, Sakama was able to spar with fighters from other gyms on the same day, and was not in the condition that your company claims (note: he was unable to walk).
At the same time, when asked whether it was true that he had made a false report to the JBC and why they had not issued an official statement regarding Sakama’s death more than a year after his death, he responded as follows.
When asked why the JBC did not make an official statement on Sakama’s death more than a year after his death, he replied as follows: “We informed the JBC of Sakama’s abstention due to a fever on March 16, 2012. At that time, we did not know that Sakama had committed suicide. We have decided that it would not be appropriate to announce Sakama’s suicide to the media without the consent of his bereaved family, and we have refrained from responding to the media. (As for the reason for not issuing a statement, we are still in discussions with the lawyer representing the bereaved family, so we will refrain from giving a response. Not a day goes by that we do not think of Sakama, and we do not intend to let this matter fade into the past.
Akira Kikuchi, an attorney at Shibuya Aqua Law Office, questioned the current situation in which Kanamu’s death has not been adequately investigated.
Given that the bereaved family wants to prevent a recurrence so that a similar incident will not occur again, a thorough postmortem review should be conducted. If the results show that the parties involved are legally responsible, they should be punished, but even if they are not found to be legally responsible, concrete measures to prevent recurrence must be considered.
At the same time, when the results of the verification are obtained, it is important to publicize them widely to prevent recurrence, rather than keeping them within the organization, so that the public will not suspect a cover-up.
JBC staff members also have mixed feelings, caught between the rules of “mura-society” and common sense.
We have held hearings with both the bereaved families and the gyms, and we have had reports submitted to us. Since Kanamu’s case is not a fatal accident in the ring, it is not easy to handle, and it has been more than a year since the accident. However, we recognize that this is a serious issue that must not be allowed to fade away, and the JBC will definitely clarify the facts at the appropriate time.
After the match on March 18, 2012, in which he was scheduled to compete, Kanamu wanted to return the favor to his childhood friends, who always came to the venue to cheer him on, and had planned to invite them to Universal Studios Japan in Osaka.
The death of a boxer who showed great promise for the future should not be simply described as a “tragedy.
Japan Inochi no Denwa Renmei
Phone: 0570-783-556 (10:00 a.m. to 10:00 p.m.)
Yorisoi Hotline (Social Inclusion Support Center)
Phone: 0120-279-338 (24 hours a day, 7 days a week. (The number at the end is 226 from Iwate, Miyagi, and Fukushima prefectures)
Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare’s “Unified Dial for Mental Health Consultation” and SNS consultation
Phone 0570-064-556 (response times vary by municipality)
https://www.mhlw.go.jp/stf/seisakunitsuite/bunya/hukushi_kaigo/seikatsuhogo/jisatsu/soudan_info.html
List of consultation offices to support life (list of consultation offices by prefecture and government-designated city)
https://jscp.or.jp/soudan/index.html
