 Kakizoe's 3-12 performance in September 2010 saw him demoted to "jūryō" for the first time and he lost "sekitori" status after scoring only 4-11 at Juryo 9 in January 2011.Despite only scoring a "make-koshi" 3-4 in the May 2011 "technical examination" tournament, he was nonetheless promoted back to "jūryō" because of the large number of slots available after the forced retirements of many wrestlers following a match-fixing scandal.However, his return to "jūryō" was short-lived as he turned in a disastrous 1-14 score, his ninth consecutive "make-koshi".