Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych has awarded sumo wrestler Taiho Koki, who was born to a Japanese mother and an ethnic Ukrainian father, the Order of Merit of the third degree.
The sumo wrestler was awarded the order "for personal contribution into strengthening international image of Ukraine and the Ukrainian-Japanese humanitarian relations," the presidential press service reported.
Taiho Koki, born 1940, is generally regarded as the greatest sumo wrestler of the post-war period. He won a record 32 tournaments between 1960 and 1971.
He was born on the island of Sakhalin to a Japanese mother and an ethnic Ukrainian father who had fled the Bolshevik Revolution.