--- title: Naki Sumo Baby Crying Contest in Hiroshima Japan Video Photos description: The 400-year-old festival is meant to bring good health to participating children canonical: https://time.com/90981/watch-these-adorable-babies-compete-in-a-crying-contest/ author: Jessica Roy article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2014-05-07T16:19:42.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-04-13T07:09:28.600Z og:title: Watch These Adorable Babies Compete in a Crying Contest og:description: The 400-year-old festival is meant to bring good health to participating children og:url: https://time.com/90981/watch-these-adorable-babies-compete-in-a-crying-contest/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt3a69185c8d10e0d3/69868e3c810bbbcc0cc916e9/151688114.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: 'Baby-Cry Sumo' Competition Held In Nagoya og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Watch These Adorable Babies Compete in a Crying Contest twitter:description: The 400-year-old festival is meant to bring good health to participating children twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt3a69185c8d10e0d3/69868e3c810bbbcc0cc916e9/151688114.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Watch These Adorable Babies Compete in a Crying Contest by [Jessica Roy](https://time.com/author/jessica-roy/) ## Jessica Roy May 7, 2014 4:19 PM UTC  NAGOYA, JAPAN - SEPTEMBER 02: (CHINA OUT, SOUTH KOREA OUT) Babies under the age of one lifted by pretended Sumo wrestlers with a call out, in Naki Sumo match, baby cry contest on September 2, 2012 in Shimanto, Kochi, Japan. (Photo by The Asahi Shimbun via Getty Images) NAGOYA, JAPAN - SEPTEMBER 02: (CHINA OUT, SOUTH KOREA OUT) Babies under the age of one lifted by pretended Sumo wrestlers with a call out, in Naki Sumo match, baby cry contest on September 2, 2012 in Shimanto, Kochi, Japan. (Photo by The Asahi Shimbun via Getty Images)The Asahi Shimbun—2012 The Asahi Shimbun by [Jessica Roy](https://time.com/author/jessica-roy/) ## Jessica Roy May 7, 2014 4:19 PM UTC Most parents go to great lengths to keep their babies from crying, but at Japan’s Naki Sumo festival, the point is to actually make your kid sob. In this video, sumo wrestlers make loud noises and faces at babies to get them to start crying. The baby who cries the loudest and for the longest amount of time is deemed the winner, though the real winners are the baby’s parents, who probably haven’t gotten a good night’s sleep in months. As NBC News [writes](http://www.nbcnews.com/news/weird-news/crying-games-japanese-babies-face-n97911), “some believe that children’s wailing wards off evil spirits.” Though their tear-stained faces might make you a little sad, the 400-year-old festival is [meant](http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/04/29/naki-sumo-japan-crying-baby-contest%5Fn%5F3180075.html) to bring the babies good health. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/90981/watch-these-adorable-babies-compete-in-a-crying-contest/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/90981/watch-these-adorable-babies-compete-in-a-crying-contest/"},"headline":"Watch These Adorable Babies Compete in a Crying Contest","datePublished":"2014-05-07T16:19:42.000Z","dateModified":"2026-04-13T07:09:28.600Z","description":"The 400-year-old festival is meant to bring good health to participating children","url":"https://time.com/90981/watch-these-adorable-babies-compete-in-a-crying-contest/","keywords":["Newsfeed","Babies","viral"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt3a69185c8d10e0d3/69868e3c810bbbcc0cc916e9/151688114.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Jessica Roy","jobTitle":"","url":"https://time.com/author/jessica-roy/"}],"articleSection":"","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt3a69185c8d10e0d3/69868e3c810bbbcc0cc916e9/151688114.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"'Baby-Cry Sumo' Competition Held In Nagoya","caption":"'Baby-Cry Sumo' Competition Held In Nagoya","creditText":"The Asahi Shimbun—2012 The Asahi Shimbun","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/tag/time-section-newsfeed/","name":"Newsfeed"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/90981/watch-these-adorable-babies-compete-in-a-crying-contest/","name":"Watch These Adorable Babies Compete in a Crying Contest"}}]}] ```