World ninjas gather in Japan for women's meet

Disciples of Grandmaster Masaaki Hatsumi receive special training in a Tokyo gymnasium More than 200 ninjas from around the world gathered at a Tokyo gymnasium Friday to kick off a two-day training seminar, especially designed for women .The disciples of Grandmaster Masaaki Hatsumi, the founder of the Bujinkan school, gathered from more than 17 countries at the Tokyo Budo-kan martial arts gymnasium to sharpen their self-defence skills.
Gone are the days when the Japanese historical masked agents carried out espionage acts against opposing warlords, they said.
Mondern-day ninjas are ordinary people with normal jobs who practise self-defence skills, or "ninjutsu", stressing use of balance and space to bring opponents to submission.