Japanese Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda made the actual award presentation; and the Emperor and Empress were present at the 2008 ceremony along with a large number of African heads of state.
They met with the Prime Minister of Japan Yasuo Fukuda, who expressed support for the promotion of the Confucius birthday in Asia.
The (now ex-) stablemaster and three other wrestlers who were involved were arrested in February 2008, after which Japanese Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda demanded the Sumo Association take steps to ensure such an incident never happens again.
Other members of the group include the current PM Yasuo Fukuda; current Defense Minister Shigeru Ishiba; a former leader of the Democratic Party of Japan Seiji Maehara; Ex-Defense Ministers Fumio Kyuma, Tokuichiro Tamazawa, Fukushiro Nukaga, Tsutomu Kawara and Gen Nakatani; Ex-Agriculture Ministers Tsutomu Takebe and Norihiko Akagi.
Yasuo Fukuda | Yasuo Kuniyoshi | Sakiko Fukuda-Parr | Yasuo Hamanaka | Yasuo Furuhata | Tomikazu Fukuda | Shuhei Fukuda | Riki Fukuda | Masahiro Fukuda | Jun Fukuda |
Japanese Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda bemoaned Nagai's death as "extremely unfortunate" and Chief Cabinet Secretary Nobutaka Machimura offered his prayers and condolences.