to a public interest incorporated foundation, sumo wrestlers and referees no longer have the right to vote. In September 2008, at the Ministry of Education's insistence after a series of scandals hit sumo, three external directors were appointed. One of the three, , served as acting Chairman for the July 2010 tournament while the then head, Musashigawa, was suspended. The board of directors elects a chairman (called rijichō, primus inter pares) from among themselves. Directors other than the chairman serve as department heads. Each board member serves a two-year term. Deputy Directors Special Executives Counselor committee Introduced in 2014, the counselor committee (Hyōgi-in, 評議員) is responsible for monitoring the shared interests of the ministry and the Association. Therefore, it is made up equally of retired oyakata (with no re-employement) elected within the Association and personalities appointed by the ministry. Their rank equals that of a director to the Association's board. Elders on the committee are not allowed to concurrently serve as oyakata because of the committee authority that allows them to have a say in the appointment and dismissal of directors. Each counselor serves a term of 4 years. Having the task of "overseeing the execution of duties by the directors", auditors may attend meetings of the Board of Directors and the Board of Trustees, but have no voting rights. List of past rijichō Controversies In the decade from 2007 to 2017, the Association had to deal with a number of affairs like the Tokitsukaze stable disciple assault death case (2007), the case of foreign sumo wrestlers possessing and smoking cannabis (2008), the baseball gambling and match-fixing scandal (2010-2011), yokozuna Harumafuji's assault incident (2017) and the ban on women. While the Association had always benefited from leniency on a certain number of its practices, the evolutions of Japanese society and the ever more frequent media coverage of the scandals surrounding the Association contributed to the reaction of the latter and to the establishment of reforms in this world yet governed by immutable rules. Links with criminals In 2010, the Japan Sumo Association announced its decision to dismiss ōzeki Kotomitsuki and the Ōtake-oyakata (former Takatōriki), for betting on baseball games in a gambling ring run by the yakuza. At the same time, two stable masters were demoted and an unprecedented 18 wrestlers banned from the July 2010 tournament. Sumo Association chairman Hanaregoma declared in August 2010 that "violent groups or antisocial