Already well known as the greatest pheenom to hail from Nanao City, Ishikawa Prefecture since Yokozuna Wajima and possibly an amateur with as huge potentials as Wajima, Ryoya Tatsu won the yusho at the All Japan Junior High Sumo Tournament held in Ryogoku's Kokugikan last August. He also helped his team to win the overall group yusho and now is expected to take part in the Osaka grand sumo tournament beginning this weekend.

The Japan Sumo Association said Tatsu had passed his first health check and was waiting for the results of internal tests to determine if he could wrestle in Osaka. "I want to be a yokozuna in six to seven years," Tatsu told the Nikkan Sports newspaper. "I want to become an aggressive champion."

Tatsu, who hails from the hot spring resort of Nanao in central Japan, is already similar in size to his idol, Mongolian yokozuna Hakuho, who boasts a 152-kilogram, 1.92-metre frame.

Japanese officials are desperate for the next homegrown yokozuna, the country's last being Takanohana, who retired from the sport in 2003.