 After the tournament he received an "encouragement" from the Yokozuna Deliberation Council, which indicates that his performance is considered to be below that of "yokozuna" standard.The Council had not previously issued any sort of resolution on the previous occasions in which Kisenosato had withdrawn or abstained from participating in a tournament.Kisenosato pulled out of the winter regional tour, but on December 25 he told reporters he intended to compete in the January 2019 tournament.