Japanese Cadets Go Up the Pole for Honor

Hundreds of Japanese military cadets demonstrate their fighting spirit in a bizarre game called "capture the pole" or "Bo-taoshi" in Japanese.

Published

6 months ago

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Transcript

Hundreds of cadets at Japan's Defense Academy are showing their fighting spirit. This game is called "bo-taoshi," which means "capture the pole" in English. As the name suggests, the first team to knock down their opponent's pole wins. Nearly 2000 spectators watched the four participating teams fight out the strategic battle. SOUNDBITE: 38-year-old Tokyo Resident and Mother of three children Shizue Tachibana, saying (Japanese) "Watching the battle between spirited young men is really cool, and I was quite surprised." SOUNDBITE: 23-year-old College Student Shohei Nishi, saying (Japanese) "Only military cadets would engage in such extreme fights." While the game looks quite rough, academy officials said that no one was seriously injured.