Athletes in many sports can struggle to reinvent themselves after retirement, but the challenge is particularly acute for those in the ancient world of sumo
This picture taken on April 11, 2022 shows retired sumo wrestler Takuya Saito (R) talking with frozen dumplings factory and Chinese restaurant owner Tomohiko Yamaguchi (L) in Kyoto. (Credit: Philip FONG / AFP/Sumo-Japan-Retirement, FOCUS by Mathias CENA)
​Kyoto, Japan: When Japanese sumo wrestler Takuya Saito retired from the sport at 32 and began job hunting, he had no professional experience and didn't even know how to use a computer.
Athletes in many sports can struggle to reinvent themselves after retirement, but the challenge is particularly acute for those in the ancient world of sumo.
Wrestlers are often recruited early, sometimes as young as 15, and their formal education ends when they move into the communal stables where they live and train.
That can leave them in for a rude awakening when their topknots are shorn in the ritual that marks their retirement.