Quote Originally Posted by Buffalobiian View Post
Besides, the committee was never about ethics in the first place. It was all about the image of Karuta. Should they let him play in order to defeat the bad Karuta role model, or should they punish him harshly to show that Karuta is an elegant Japanese tradition that will not be defiled?
I concur that the committee is quite silly and doesn't seem to actually care about ethics.

I wonder though, what kind of lenient punishment could they actually lay down on Arata? If this is indeed an unprecedented situation, then not giving any punishment whatsoever would be a really bad precedence to set (why have a rule if you don't intend on enforcing it). On the other hand, if they do punish him, what could it possibly be other than kicking him out of the tournament? That is pretty much the only thing he is participating in. They can't really suspend him for a few games, and they can't fine him (it's not like the players are getting paid to do this), so what option do they really have?