The Japan Sumo Association will hold an extraordinary meeting of its board of directors on Saturday to discuss its long-standing policy of excluding women from the sumo ring, the sport's governing body said Monday.

The meeting was scheduled after the association faced heavy criticism following an incident in which a referee demanded female medics leave a venue's competition area when they were providing emergency treatment to a local mayor who had collapsed and suffered a stroke.

"We can't move forward unless we talk about it first. (The board) will discuss the matter flexibly from different perspectives," the JSA's public relations chief Shibatayama said of the meeting scheduled at Tokyo's Ryogoku Kokugikan.

The dohyo, or raised ring, is regarded as sacred, and women have been banned from entering because they are considered "ritually unclean" in the male-only sport of sumo.

Amid worldwide attention, JSA chairman Hakkaku apologized after the incident that took place in April at a spring tour in the western Japan city of Maizuru, saying the referee made an "inappropriate response."

In a separate event the same month, a female mayor of a city in western Japan was barred from entering the ring to give a speech during a sumo exhibition.

Takarazuka Mayor Tomoko Nakagawa visited the JSA Thursday and met with Shibatayama to ask for the policy to be tabled for discussion.