The Japan Sumo Association says its banzuke committee meets within three days after a honbasho. Promotions to yokozuna, ozeki and juryo are announced immediately; most other new positions remain unannounced until the official banzuke release before the next tournament. That is why you can learn who has become a new or returning juryo wrestler before you know every Maegashira and Makushita number.
For an overseas fan, the timing can resemble a leak, but the Association itself describes a partial-release process. The confirmed promotion category and the still-unpublished East–West number are therefore different information states; the source does not state a separate motive for the timing. Do not confuse that confirmed timing with proof of every sekitori entitlement.
Following that exception raises a second question: what changes at juryo? That question falls outside the evidence of the timing page and belongs in the separately sourced sekitori guide.
The committee meets quickly, but most ranks remain sealed
The Association’s organization page says the banzuke committee convenes within three days after the tournament. Results from the completed basho are used to compose promotion and demotion for the next ranking.
The meeting date is not the public release date for every line. Yokozuna, ozeki and wrestlers promoted to juryo are disclosed immediately. Other positions are held for the designated banzuke announcement day before the next honbasho.
This produces two different information states. “He has officially been promoted to juryo” can be confirmed soon after the committee meeting. “He will be West Juryo 10” may need to wait for the full ranking. A fan prediction about an unannounced Maegashira slot remains a prediction even if the committee has already done its work privately.
Juryo is a change of category, not just one higher number
The sources in this article establish the early-announcement sequence. They are not, by themselves, a complete current definition of every sekitori entitlement or capacity; those details belong in the separately sourced sekitori guide.
The museum archive cited here documents preparations including a kesho-mawashi and shimekomi after the committee meeting. It does not, in this article, prove a complete universal list of salary, hairstyle, attendants or bout-scheduling entitlements, so we do not extend it that far.
The archive documents some equipment preparation; it does not establish every promoted wrestler’s private timetable, daily stable role or motive. The Association’s organization page states the early-release policy but gives no one-sentence reason for it. Do not confuse the historical preparation record below with a quoted official rationale for the policy.
The Sumo Museum archive explains the preparation gap
An Association Sumo Museum exhibition about the period between tournaments described what follows the committee meeting. A gyoji begins preparing the hand-written banzuke, while newly promoted juryo wrestlers prepare items including their kesho-mawashi and shimekomi. The full banzuke is released roughly two weeks before the next opening day, after much of that work is already under way.
In that archived account, equipment preparation begins before the public sees every rank. It helps explain what can happen during the interval, but it does not prove an unchanged universal timetable for every later promotion.
It also explains why the celebration often begins at the stable long before the printed banzuke reaches fans.
September 2026 gives a current example
The official September 2026 new-juryo page is dated July 29, 2026. It lists Tanji and Tokifudo as new promotions and Nabatame as returning to juryo. The complete September banzuke was released later, adding their precise East or West positions and numbers.
The first announcement therefore answered the boundary question: who will enter or re-enter juryo? The later banzuke answered the address question: exactly where will each wrestler sit within the division?
Do not silently fill that second answer from a prediction. Use the new-juryo list for confirmed promotion status and the official banzuke for the eventual full position.
“New” and “returning” tell different stories
*Shin-juryo* means reaching juryo for the first time. *Sai-juryo* means returning after having previously held a juryo place and then fallen below the division. Both wrestlers will be sekitori in the coming tournament, but their paths are different.
The official September list marks Nabatame as returning, while Tanji and Tokifudo are new. That single note changes what to watch. One wrestler is learning the sekitori rhythm for the first time; another is recovering a status he already knows.
International coverage sometimes compresses both into “promoted to Juryo.” Keeping the distinction preserves the person inside the transaction.
A winning Makushita record is not an automatic ticket
Juryo has only 28 places. Promotion depends not just on one Makushita wrestler’s positive record but on the available places and the full ranking deliberation. There is no responsible shortcut that turns one record into a guaranteed promotion before the Association announces it.
This is where source labels matter. “Likely to be promoted” may be useful analysis. “Officially new Juryo” should be reserved for the Association’s announcement.
The same restraint applies in reverse: the number of announced promotions does not reveal every unpublished movement elsewhere on the banzuke.
Watch the first preparations, not only the first bout
When the next new-juryo announcement appears, save one name. Read the official profile and learn the stable. On banzuke day, add the exact rank. During the tournament, arrive in time for the juryo ring entrance and try to find that first kesho-mawashi.
It is easy to imagine that a promotion becomes real only when the wrestler steps onto the dohyo. The quieter interval is just as revealing: a committee has met, a gyoji has begun fitting hundreds of names into sumo calligraphy, and somewhere a new sekitori is preparing clothing for a world he has just entered.
The early list is short, but it lets the next tournament begin before the tickets are scanned.
Sources
- Japan Sumo Association, mission and organization page, official event schedule, September 2026 new-juryo list and banzuke topics; Sumo Museum archive “From one honbasho to the next” (checked September 3, 2026)
Source links used for verification
Each link was used for the corresponding claim in this article; inclusion is not a blanket endorsement of the whole page.
Article verified:
- Japan Sumo Association mission and organization: banzuke committee and immediate announcementsPrimary source (as checked for this article)
- Japan Sumo Association September 2026 new juryo listPrimary source (as checked for this article)
- Japan Sumo Association September 2026 banzuke topicsPrimary source (as checked for this article)
- Japan Sumo Association official event schedulePrimary source (as checked for this article)
- Sumo Museum archive: From one honbasho to the nextHistorical primary source (record from that period)