Japan’s professional sumo ranking system has six divisions: makuuchi, jūryō, makushita, sandanme, jonidan, and jonokuchi.
Makuuchi is the top division and contains the sport’s most prominent wrestlers, including yokozuna, ōzeki, sekiwake, komusubi, and maegashira. Jūryō is the second division and is also a salaried professional rank. Wrestlers in the four lower divisions generally have different accommodation, pay, and tournament responsibilities.
The divisions are not simply weight classes. Promotion and demotion depend mainly on tournament records, so a wrestler can rise through the system by winning consistently. A common mix-up is confusing the six divisions with the five named ranks below yokozuna in the top division; those ranking titles describe status within makuuchi, not separate divisions.
Each official tournament lasts 15 days for top-division and jūryō wrestlers, while lower-division competitors usually wrestle fewer bouts. This structure lets the Japan Sumo Association rank hundreds of wrestlers within one interconnected system.