I speculated on Muscletime.com that the 2008 IFBB Japan Pro Bodybuilding Show scheduled for October 13, 2008 would be cancelled as a result of Hidetada Yamagishi’s arrest and ongoing incarceration since his big money sponsor was also behind promoting the show:
This is also bad news for the IFBB, IFBB Japan, and especially Hide Yamagishi’s sponsor, RKS Planning (a division of Rokkuku Construction Company in Japan) who has invested significant funds in promoting Hide domestically and internationally. They accompanied him to the 2007 Mr. Olympia weekend distributing free merchandise to promote Hide; the company produced a couple of commercials featuring Hide which can be seen here and here. Furthermore, they are sponsoring the 2008 IFBB Japan Pro in Tokyo in October of 2008; recent events suggest that this may be cancelled depending on the outcome of the Hidetada Yamagishi case.
Now, it appears that the 2008 IFBB Japan Pro show has been removed from the official IFBB calendar of events. There is no official word on the show, but I expect that RKS Planning will cut their losses if Hidetada’s legal problems are as serious as they appear.
