Characters / Like a Dragon: Ichiban Kasuga

Like a Dragon | Main Index
Character-Specific Pages: Kazuma Kiryu | Goro Majima | Akira Nishikiyama | Ichiban Kasuga
Yakuza | Yakuza 2 | Yakuza 3 | Yakuza 4 | Yakuza 5 | Like a Dragon: Ishin! | Yakuza 0 (Dojima Lieutenants | Kamurocho Residents | Sotenbori Residents) | Yakuza 6 | Yakuza: Like a Dragon (The Heroes of Tomorrow) | Like a Dragon Gaiden: The Man Who Erased His Name | Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth
Judgment (Takayuki Yagami) | Lost Judgment

Ichiban Kasuga

Voiced by: Kazuhiro Nakaya (Japanese), Chisa Yuuki (Japanese, Child), Kaiji Tang (English)^{Other Languages}Jason Cao (Chinese)

^{Click here to see Ichiban as he appears in Yakuza Online.}

^{Click here to see Ichiban in the year 2000.}

^{Click here to see Ichiban in his Hawaii outfit (Infinite Wealth).}

"Sure, I pretend to be a hero when I fight. So what?"

The Dragon of Rock Bottom. He is the main protagonist of Yakuza: Like a Dragon and Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth, taking place after the end of Kazuma Kiryu's saga. A kind-hearted, faithful and imaginative goofball at heart who sees life as a game of Dragon Quest, he will help anyone in their time of need provided that they don't mess with him and those he considers friends.

Ichiban was born on New Year's Day, 1977. Abandoned within a coin locker as an infant, he was adopted by the Shangri-la soapland manager Jiro Kasuga, who named him "Ichiban". Jiro raised the young boy with various prostitutes and gave him a loving home in the red light districts of Kamurocho, up until his death. As a teenager, Ichiban ignored school and any semblance of a career, and instead opted to pick fights with punks and lift money off of them to help the locals. He eventually ended up biting more than he could chew after beating up the thug of a Yakuza, who then came for revenge. At the hands of their torture, he attempted to threaten them with a bluff by using the name of the Arakawa Family.

This worked all too well, and now believing they had a valuable hostage in their hands, the Yakuza contacted the Arakawa Family in an attempt to extort money from them. Ichiban was sure that this was the end of him... but then none other than the head of the Arakawa Family, Masumi Arakawa himself, showed up for the exchange. Instead of calling Ichiban out on his bluff, the seasoned gangster instead decided to help the young man out of his deadly predicament, and played along with the charade, even taking responsibility for Ichiban's actions by cutting off a part of his little finger without any hesitation. Humbled by this display of fearlessness, the Yakuza immediately released Ichiban with no further questions asked. Moved by Arakawa's sacrifice and strength, he insisted on pledging himself to the Arakawa Family, and approached Arakawa for a hundred days until the old man finally accepted him into the family. Despite that, Ichiban failed to be a successful Yakuza due to his goodhearted nature, only spared from the worst due to his claim as a member of the Arakawa, and Masumi's constant leniency towards him.

However, on December 31, 2000, the Arakawa Family became implicated in a murder of a member of the Tojo Clan. Not only that, the murderer was Arakawa's own son, Masato, who was a civilian with no ties to the Arakawa Family but Jo decided to take the fall hoping Ichiban would make the sacrifice to protect Arakawa's son. If this case went the way it was going, the Arakawa Family would have to be disbanded. In order to keep the family alive, and seeing the event as an opportunity to finally pay back Masumi Arakawa for saving his life, Ichiban agreed to take the blame for the murder. The next day, January 1, 2001, his 24th birthday, Ichiban Kasuga turned himself into the local police.

Eighteen years later, Ichiban's sentence was up and he was released from prison, expecting a grateful reunion only to be met with silence and his Patriarch taking control of Kamurocho as the clan captain of the Omi Alliance and Masato had passed away. Meeting his father-figure for the first time, he was met with a gun aimed at him and was shot...

The next morning, he wakes up in Yokohama's Isezaki Ijincho red light district in a dumpster, surprisingly alive but now exiled from his home. Determined to rise to the top again, he and an unlikely band of misfits must now take over Yokohama and get the happy ending he hoped for.

His default job is Freelancer, which is a specialist melee class designed to overwhelm enemies with powerful single-target attacks. He later trades out this job for the much more versatile Hero job, which focuses on him using a baseball bat like a sword for wide-hitting swings and devastating blows. His personal skills revolve around using his charisma to get his way in battle, like buffing his allies or convincing enemies to fork over items.

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A-M

• 1-Up: The Hero skill Peerless Resolve allows Ichiban to immediately revive after receiving fatal damage, and is the only "resurrect" type ability that will work on him, given that him hitting zero hitpoints will automatically result in defeat otherwise.
• Affectionate Nickname: Both Masumi and Masato Arakawa call him "Ichi". It's much less affectionate on Masato's end as he secretly hated Ichiban the entire time for reminding him so much of his father, but it switches to being affectionate in his final moments before he's killed as an indicator that Ichiban has managed to successfully get through to him and make him see the error of his ways. Subverted with Sawashiro, who calls him "Ichi" as his way of talking down to him. Saeko also refers to him as ‘Icchan’.
• Afro Asskicker: His signature messy afro is one of the most recognizable things about him, and being a Yakuza protagonist, he's an accomplished brawler.
• Age-Gap Romance: Played very straight in Like A Dragon, where Ichiban himself is a man pushing mid-40s, while most if not all of his potential girlfriends are young women about half his age, with the verdict only being out on exactly how old Saeko is compared to him.
• All-Loving Hero: Downplayed. Ichiban certainly isn't immune to hating people (just ask Totsuka, Kume, Tendo, and Bryce, to name a few), but he generally looks at the best in people and is willing to forgive almost anyone at the slightest hint of remorse. This trait is enough that he even manages to get through to Ryo Aoki and convince him to redeem himself for his crimes before his Heel–Face Door-Slam.
• Ambiguously Bi:
  • One of the optional things he can do is "Honk Honk" with people in alleyways, whom are implied to be hookers he can pay to have sex with (and have the same fade to pink Kasuga gets when he romances, and implicitly has sex with, any girl he can court). That said, some of these people he can "Honk Honk" with are male.
  • Ichiban's also very quick to compliment a guy's looks. His way of chatting up a dude for info? Tell him he's ripped.
  • Even more noticeable in Joon-Gi Han's drink links where Kasuga frequently mentions Joon-Gi's good looks.
• Anime Hair: His haircut is probably the closest thing to a realistic approximation of spiky anime character hair that one can get. He was trying to get a 90's style punch perm for that classic Yakuza look from his youth, but it being 2019 and the stylist being a young woman who had no idea what a punch perm was, this was the result. Adachi can't help but bust a gut upon seeing it. It seems to have grown on him come Infinite Wealth, however, since he goes back to it after being let go from Hello Work, where he had a more conventional hairstyle.
• Anonymous Benefactor: In one substory, he raises the million yen for Megumi's brother's surgery, himself, and pays for it anonymously.
• Anti-Hero: Downplayed as he's a very nice and selfless guy overall, but he has no problems blackmailing a Liumang underling for information (though it's ultimately harmless as he's basically just ruining the guy's reputation by ousting his fetish). He can also get mindlessly violent when his temper flares up, though that's rectified after Kiryu manages to beat some sense into him.
• Arson, Murder, and Jaywalking: Right before his fight with the Michio impostor in the sub story "Fauxno Michio", he has this to say:
  Ichiban: You scam people with fake merch, you make kids cry and you don't know a damn thing about Michio!
• Art Evolution: In the initial Shin Ryu Ga Gotoku teaser that introduced him, he looked significantly older than in the final game. This initial appearance is also used in Ryu Ga Gotoku Online, as seen above.
• Asian and Nerdy: He's the nerdiest protagonist in series History. And probably the most well-educated next to Akiyama since he actually went back to vocational school, unlike the other protagonists (who likely dropped out of school to join up with the yakuza).
• Aside Glance: Exclusive to the English dub of Like a Dragon, Ichiban will do this when dealing with the foreigner in "Fast Times at Ounabara". Mostly as a Leaning on the Fourth Wall gag about the ridiculousness of two characters having a language barrier problem despite talking the same language.
• The Atoner: He initially was this after learning that the Tojo Clan has disbanded two years prior to his release, giving him heavy guilt over the fact that had he not added three years to his initial sentence due to his outburst in prison he could have done something to prevent this, and thus desperately sought Masumi after his release in order to make up for his apparent "mistake". However this all changed after Masumi shot him.
• Audience Surrogate: In a sense. Considering how he's been in prison for the entirety of the series before his debut, he'd be every bit as unfamiliar with the events of previous entries as a player who started with Like A Dragon would be, as well as having little idea on who the series mainstays are, like Majima, Saejima, Daigo and Kiryu, among other things.
• Awesome McCoolname: "Ichiban" means "Number One". Characters in the story remark on how unusual it is and how fake it sounds.
• Badass Adorable: Appearances aside, his kindness, determination and reaction to girls being flirty makes him this almost as much as Haruka.
• Badass Longcoat: In the final chapter, his Hero class can don the True Hero getup, which is Masumi Arakawa's clothing from the first one.
• Bad Liar: Ichiban cannot tell a lie to save his life. Ironically, this means he has an easy time getting the paranoid warring crime factions to believe his word as they can immediately tell that everything he says is completely sincere. He does get better at this towards the tail end of the story, managing to lie to Masato about there being a recorded voice message of him ordering the death of Arakawa to set up Masato's Engineered Public Confession.
• Batman Gambit:
  • In 7, his plan to take Masato and Tendo down hinged on him knowing that Masato would do everything to cover up any evidence of his criminal activities and would send Tendo to do the dirty work. Luckily, it worked like a charm, and he played Arakawa like a fiddle because, as he points out, he's known Masato for years, and knows him more than Masato knows him.
  • Shown again in Infinite Wealth. While uploading a video of himself to the Internet with the intent of getting Akane to come to him and the other Heroes, it also drew in attention from the Gangzhe. Ichiban counted on this to happen since he figured that while Akane wouldn't see, let alone respond to the video, it'd still get the attention of someone who does know something about her since the only ones who would even bother responding are the ones who already knew that Ichiban is Akane's son in the first place.
• Batter Up!: His iconic weapon, which he starts using when he enters the "Hero" job, due to his rather wild imagination he also treats it as something of a sword.
• The Beastmaster: An exclusive job to him in Infinite Wealth is the Sujimancer. He forgoes a weapon and can summon the various Sujimon he gathers on his journey to use in standard battles.
• Berserk Button:
  • Insulting Arakawa is a huge one to him. He willingly took a beating from several prisoners during his prison stay, until their leader called Arakawa a coward. He literally beat all their teeth out in response.
  • On a lighter note he also gets really annoyed whenever people mention or make fun of his messy hair.
  • Disrespecting sex workers in front of him is likely to send him into Beware the Nice Ones territory, given that they raised him.
• Benevolent Boss: Treats his party members like they're family and isn't afraid to splurge on millions of yen on luxury parties and rocket tours to keep the employees of Ichiban Holdings happy. It's also the reason he's able to reach the number 1 business rank - his employees are motivated and work hard to pay him back.
• Beware the Nice Ones: He's sweet as can be and a friend to all in need, but he's not a pushover. He's not yet on the level of legends like Kiryu or Majima, but he can be positively scary when he drops his goofy persona and breaks out a Kubrick Stare.
• Big Damn Heroes: The Shin Ryu Ga Gotoku announcement teaser had him punching out a thug who was rushing to stab Kazuma Kiryu. Of course, this being Kiryu, this was completely unnecessary, but Kiryu appreciated the sentiment nonetheless. And being a Like a Dragon protagonist, he's very much prone to this in his Substories.
• Big Eater: When he decides to take the fall Captain Sawashiro, he decides to make his last meal as a freeman wolfing down several beef bowls before turning himself in.
• Big Ol' Eyebrows: His eyebrows are absolutely huge and very, very bushy. They match him being a tough guy and also a lovable goofball. A substory character in Infinite Wealth even describes them as being like "curious caterpillars".
• Big "NO!": In the English dub, he does this after Masato collapses from being stabbed by Kume.
• Book Dumb: Downplayed, if not outright averted entirely. While he's a middle school dropout, one of his primary strengths in combat is being able to coordinate with his team. Not to mention, he can become just as multi-talented as prior protagonists via the Job System. He becomes less so to the point of being a noticeable aversion upon passing each certification in Vocational School, however, and one of his social stats is Intelligence, and he says on more than one occasion that he loves learning about new things. Ichi also has a surprisingly eloquent and sophisticated vocabulary (albeit, a colourful one) despite his dropout status, and is easily able to debate and argue with ideological or literal opponents and do well in winning said debates. On top of all of that, Ichi shows multiple times that he's actually quite bright in general, and is particularly brilliant at complicated plans and strategies, to the point that even other smart and meticulous planners like Masato don't see the plans in front of them until they've already been implemented to a point where they can't be stopped.
• Bootstrapped Leitmotif: Streets of Kamurocho has a Genesis soundfont remix of "Yokohama Crackhouse" from Like a Dragon play when you're playing as Ichiban.
• Break Them by Talking: While campaigning against Kume, Ichiban didn't even need to raise a finger against him in response to his antagonism of him. If anything, Ichiban fired back with legitimate counterpoints to his claims, leaving Kume no choice but to bail in response.
• Bully Hunter: Much like Kiryu before him. Ichiban has zero tolerance towards people who take advantage of their power to abuse others, and quite a few substories involve bullies being on the receiving end of his fists.
• Bunny-Ears Lawyer: Ichiban Kasuga - an ex-con that imagines life as a Dragon Quest adventure and is every bit as multitalented as his predecessors. Such feats include, but aren't limited to - being a good go-kart racer, turning a once-struggling small business into a multi-billion dollar franchise, reviving a run-down resort island and subsequently restoring it to five-star status, having quite the silver tongue, and having charisma on par with that of a politician or cult leader.
• But Not Too Foreign: Infinite Wealth reveals that he's part Hawaiian through his mother Akane.
• Butt-Monkey: He might be the unluckiest protagonist in the series. To put it into perspective, cars stop for Kiryu whenever he crosses the street. Cars ram Ichiban if he doesn't wait^note  Not so much in Infinite Wealth, however; it's still possible for him to be hit by cars outside of battle but most of the time they'll stop before impact. He can still be hit by boats while swimming near the shores of Aloha Beach, however. .
• Calling Your Orgasms: Does this in all of his romance scenes.
• Celibate Hero: Admits to Saeko in her romance scene that while he’d like to have a girlfriend he has too much stuff to do. Only after it’s done can he sit back and relax in a relationship.
• Character Development: Like with the Persona series before it, a major game mechanic involves developing his social stats, and he gains access to various new Jobs, as well as other benefits, like strengthening his Hero Job, through doing so.
• Chaste Hero: Averted in the gameplay itself where he can visit hostess clubs and even romance specific women, but in the main story, he's actually rather reserved around the opposite sex, always shown keeping a respectable distance and rarely ever even flirting with them. Makes sense as he grew up in the red light districts and views the people living there, even the soapland prostitutes as his surrogate family rather just sexual playthings.
  • When he and the rest of the party investigate a Chinese hostess club Nanba and Adachi are clearly appreciative of the women and get distracted whereas Ichiban reminds them to focus and only talks to the hostesses about the Yokohama Liumang and being worried about Saeko.
• Chekhov's Skill: His knowledge of gang politics and power structure comes in very useful at several points, especially once he winds up homeless. This is best seen after he beats up two members of the Chinese Mafia who are extorting the homeless for chump-change. When they threaten to bring their crew over to raze the camp, Ichiban laughs in their face, and points out that they're likely to end up dead if they report that they got their ass kicked by homeless people while collecting in somebody else's territory.
• Chick Magnet: At least six different women can fall for him, making him competitive with Majima and Kiryu. Also doubles as Clueless Chick-Magnet, since while his romantic interests aren't the least bit subtle about their attraction, Ichiban is for the most part Oblivious to Love until the girls practically spell it out to him in no uncertain terms.
• Chronic Hero Syndrome: Fitting with his hero fantasies he exhibits this behavior. Even when he was still a Yakuza he went out of his way to help anyone in need he came across and 18 years in prison hasn’t dampened his heroic spirit any.
• Chuunibyou: He becomes this after gaining the Hero's Bat and being dubbed a "Hero". His imagination gets heightened to the point that enemies in battle transform and have glowing red eyes, all fighters are suddenly equipped with weapons (real and fictional) and perform ridiculously impractical "skills", some even producing spell circle effects, while he himself gains gloves and a Scarf of Asskicking. Even his "summonings" (which is actually just him calling up his allies) has him dramatically doing swipes across his smartphone screen as if performing a summoning ritual.
• Cloudcuckoolander: He's one of the more odder protagonists in the series, the fact that imagines life (and combat) as a Dragon Quest game, is already telling.
• Color Motif: Red. His usual suit and Breaker outfit are both red, his Bodyguard outfit has a red tie, his Host outfit has both a red undershirt and a red pocket square, and his Devil Rocker outfit has both red accents and red face paint.
• Constantly Curious: He's street smart and emotionally intelligent, but his limited upbringing and prison time mean he's ignorant of a lot of more complex concepts and recent developments. He never hesitates to ask for information on something he doesn't know, and listens respectfully. In particular, he often defaults to Joon-gi and Zhao for his gaps in knowledge on Korean and Chinese subjects, respectively.
• Combat Medic: Not initially, but his exclusive Hero class gradually gives him some very good healing and buffing skills that he can use in tandem with powerful physical attacks. While his magic isn't as good as Saeko, he can still potentially act as the full time White Mage on the team if she's in another class. In Infinite Wealth, he's the party's primary healer and buffer until job-switching unlocks in Chapter 5 (which will likely take quite a while, especially if you're keeping up with side content), and it will likely still take a little while after that for other characters to fully replace him in the role.
• Contrasting Sequel Protagonist: He's very different to Kiryu on numerous levels.
  • Kiryu is a stoic gentleman Yakuza who keeps his passionate heart buried underneath a layer of calm, while Ichiban is a flamboyant and excitable man who hides a focused, determined side and can be surprisingly effective at using logic and problem-solving techniques to achieve his goals.
  • Kiryu was The Comically Serious who played straight-man to the many bizarre situations his path led him into. Ichiban is Mr. Imagination, and is usually the one who makes things weird for his much-more-serious teammates.
  • His color scheme of a red suit and a white shirt is an inverse of Kiryu's outfit. Even his hairstyle is opposite - Kiryu's iconic slicked-back Yakuza perm stands in stark contrast to Ichiban's samurai afro.
  • While Kiryu is a legendary figure among the Yakuza, Ichiban is the ultimate underdog, regarded largely as a worthless loser by the power players in his story. Kiryu is a major piece on the board, forcing the plotters to rearrange their schemes around him, only to muscle through them regardless; Ichiban is Beneath Notice for most of the game, only to make them pay dearly for underestimating him.
  • All of Kiryu's styles use some form of Good Old Fisticuffs, while Ichiban has multiple classes that specifically and explicitly uses weaponry, especially his primary class, Hero.
  • While Kiryu generally takes on hordes of thugs by himself, Ichiban typically fights in a team alongside his True Companions.
  • Kiryu's approach to problem solving was generally either mean-mugging whoever he doesn't like until they run away in fear, or beating them up until they complied. While he had his moments of guile, he was first and foremost a manly Action Hero. Ichiban is a charismatic Guile Hero who usually only resorts to combat after trying to talk things out. This is best shown at the endgame of each of their first major titles - where 1 ends with Nishiki and Kiryu duking it out, Ichiban ends 7 by talking down a suicidal Aoki, and doesn't even blink at having a gun waved in his face.
• Clueless Chick-Magnet: Is unaware of any attraction from the opposite sex until women are literally jumping his bones. Namba and Adachi have to point Saeko and Ichiban's attraction to each other early on in Infinite Wealth. As Ichiban points out, he spent most of his adult life behind bars, and having next to no interaction with women there. As a result, he has no idea how to pursue a romantic relationship.
• Crouching Moron, Hidden Badass: Ichiban is a goofy, charismatic, naive Chuunibyou who nobody takes seriously. With or without his party, he has several opportunities to demonstrate why that's a very bad idea. Even when he was still in prison, he somehow went - offscreen, no less - from being in an armlock with a goon swinging an adjustable wrench at his head, to sending them to the infirmary minus all their teeth. He doesn't look particularly hurt afterwards, and the rest of the inmates are visibly terrified of him from that point on.
• Dance Battler: He and other male party members can take the "Breaker" class, which lets them fight via breakdance fighting.
• Deadpan Snarker: Has his moments, since he's noticeably more snarky than his predecessor.
  Adachi: Used to be. Now I'm just a washed-up DMV grunt one year shy of retirement.
  Ichiban: What's a guy from the slowest department ever doing here? Come to remind me to renew my license? Is that a service you offer nowadays?
• Determinator: No matter how hard his life seems, he doesn't even waver or lose his way due to his undying faith in himself and others, causing him to persevere despite all the weight burdening him. It's even shown in the Game Over screen, where, if you choose to continue, Kasuga says he'll "get up as many times as it takes."
• Dramatically Missing the Point: After learning that he can get a job at Hello Work, Ichiban attempts to rally his fellow homeless to take back their lives, mistakenly believing that they are where they are because of a criminal record like him. Nanba is forced to spell out for him that most homeless people are in their situation through no fault of their own, and there are plenty of factors that prevent them from returning to normal society.
• Dreamworks Face: Seems to be his default expression. His bests ones are on the cover of Yakuza: Like a Dragon and in the pause screen in Infinite Wealth.
• Earn Your Happy Ending: While not a truly happy conclusion as he intended, Ichiban came better off than Kiryu did. In spite of losing his father figures and Masato in the events of the game, he still managed to find support in his new comrades in Yokohama and realizes despite being forced down to the bottom, there was still a ray of hope for him.
• Easily Forgiven: Played for laughs as part of the final romance substory, where all six girls will just take the Bartender at his words and instantly forgive Ichiban for supposedly cheating on them.
• Endearingly Dorky: While he can annoy his friends at times, they mostly think about him as this to the point that they're willing to indulge his fantasies as a way to motivate him.
• Everyone Has Standards:
  • He's less than pleased about his old friend Ushio scamming teenagers by selling them documentary footages of animals mating disguised as uncensored porn.
  • Seeing what becomes of people who go into the Excellent Area at Sunlight Castle is enough to get him, Nanba, and Adachi to shut the place down on top of freeing Nanoha's father.
  • Kume mocking Nonomiya's death earns him a well-deserved haymaker to the face from Ichiban. Because while Nonomiya may have had a seedy background, he definitely didn't deserve to be spoken of that way at all.
  • On a funnier note, while he takes some of the weirder parts of LaD in stride, even he's every bit as weirded out as Kiryu was when he encountered the Gondawara family^*The yakuza man-babies back in 2. Yes, in the same game where you can call a crayfish for backup to poison enemies with and fight a chimp operating an excavator.
    Ichiban: (thinking) What... the ever-living fuck.
• Establishing Character Moment: All that needs to be said about him is displayed in the prologue chapter of Infinite Wealth. While unceasingly polite he isn’t afraid to stand up for himself, with force if necessary. As an ex-Yakuza noticed when Ichiban knocked him senseless. However when the Yakuza’s money is taken away by the wind and falls into a sewer, Ichiban doesn’t hesitate and jumps headfirst into the sewer to retrieve all the bills the Yakuza lost. Not only that but said ex-Yakuza attempts to go straight, and when his attempt to go legitimate fails and considers going back to the Yakuza, Ichiban storms into a Yakuza base to attempt to help him, without hesitation and all for a guy he barely knew.
• Expository Hairstyle Change: Back before he went to prison he had a punch perm, a hairstyle popular among the Yakuza. After getting out of prison his hair grew out long enough to tie into a short ponytail and his attempt at getting his old hairstyle back resulted in the hair you see above. In Infinite Wealth he keeps his hair in the ponytail as an everyday citizen and styles his hair back to his afro when he sets off for Hawaii.
• Face of a Thug: From his wild and almost deranged appearance, you wouldn't expect him to be a dorky Manchild with a fanciful imagination.
• First-Name Basis: Unlike the vast majority of other playable characters in the series, most people call him by his given name of Ichiban, thanks in no small part to how informal and easy-going he is. Played with in that, much like Kiryu before him, the UI (namely text boxes and the Party menu) still call him "Kasuga" instead of his given name.
• Fish out of Temporal Water: Part of his shock over the public scene changing over the eighteen years he was locked up was the fact that everyone in the current era uses smartphones, as well as the technological and structural changes of Kamurocho's landscape, leaving him completely baffled. No surprise that he barely knows how to use a smartphone after Adachi gives him one, needing help from Nick to even get the hang of it.
• Flung Clothing: In true Yakuza fashion, he easily rips off his shirt and suit jacket to show off not only his muscles but his irezumi.
• Foil: He also serves as this to Ryo Aoki/Masato Arakawa, with Ichiban himself declaring that he is the shadow to Aoki's light. Aside from their contrasting color schemes, Ichiban is a warm and compassionate man who is able to earn loyal allies through his natural charisma and becomes a champion of the people while Aoki is a cruel and calculating schemer who treats the people around him as disposable minions all in his bid to secure ultimate political power in Japan.
• Friend to All Children: Like Kiryu and Majima, he’s really good with kids. Three substories deal with him helping out children: Spending time with a boy with a busy mom, making sure a persimmon fruit doesn’t fall off in order to keep a sick girl from losing hope, and helping another girl gather donations for her brother’s surgery. He even goes above and beyond by anonymously donating one million yen to ensure her brother’s successful surgery.
  • This extends all the way over to Hawaii in Infinite Wealth, as he helps a young boy earn enough money by handing out samples of the boy's lemonade, all so the boy can use the profits from his lemonade sales to buy an expensive gift for his departing teacher.
• Gag Haircut: After getting out of prison, he tries to get his old punch perm back only to end up with his now-iconic hairstyle thanks to an inexperienced barber, which he nonetheless decides to keep. It's implied that the look grew on him, as he retains it in the sequel which takes place several years later. Plus, keeping his hair that way would require occasional upkeep as it grew out.
• Gameplay and Story Segregation: While becoming a top company president or passing all certifications in Ounabara Vocational School are notably great feats of achievements, unfortunately they would go unmentioned in-story and does nothing to help him when he runs for an electoral campaign.
• Genius Bruiser: This is a Downplayed Trope as he's a pretty impulsive guy, compared to the other protagonists, but him imagining life as a turn-based game makes him far more tactical as well as being capable of schemes on his own.
• Golden Super Mode: The best weapon for his Hero class is a bat that glows gold.
• Golf Clubbing: One of the many weapons available for his "Hero" job is the Classy Golf Club.
• Good Cannot Comprehend Evil: What Ichiban finds so frustrating about Masato's descent into becoming a power-hungry politician is that, from his perspective, Masato had everything laid out for a happy life, being the wealthy legitimate son of a caring father. He can't understand why Masato would be willing to throw that life away for more power.
• Good Old Fisticuffs: His Freelancer class is him brawling purely with his fists. In practice, since this class allows no weapons, it's a comparatively weak class until higher levels, where the benefits from its movesets and stat boosts can be realized.
• Good Scars, Evil Scars: Gets two on his chest that eventually heal over the course of the story. One from the bullet wound inflicted on him by Arakawa and another larger one from nearly being tortured by the Yokohama Liumang.
• Gratuitous English: Besides the occasional "Thank you" during battle, one of the responses for the foreign tourist in "Fast Times at Ounabara" is, "DON'T WORRY!"
• Guile Hero: While Ichiban is no slouch in a fight, he shows shades of this. Between defusing a shakedown scheme with his knowledge of mafia hierarchy, to infiltrating a yakuza meeting place without any need of disguise, to tricking his enemies into being in one obvious place together with a well-sold bluff, he's able to use his wits and imagination as much as his brawn. Not bad for someone who started as a Bad Liar.
  • Downplayed in Infinite Wealth. He rarely gets a moment to show off his street smarts, Tomizawa often taking the lead due to his familiarity with Hawaii. Instead, his sincerity, bravery and willingness to trust in others helps him through the adventure.
• Hair-Trigger Temper: He gets angry very quickly and very violently. It tends to make him pretty reckless.
• Happily Adopted: He was raised for much of his childhood by a hostess club manager and various other characters populating the red light district. He has nothing but respect for all of them despite their seedy backgrounds. Even after finding out that Arakawa is certain to be his biological father, he elects not to get a DNA test to confirm it, considering the then-manager of Shangri-La as much his father as Arakawa.
• Hawaiian-Shirted Tourist: He's technically an inversion since he's a Japanese tourist coming to America, but in Infinite Wealth he wears a Hawaiian shirt while in Honolulu.
• Heroes Prefer Swords: Parodied. He treats his trusty baseball bat like it's the holy sword of a fantasy hero, and he and the party first find it when it's stuck in the ground like it's Caliburn.
• Heroic BSoD: He goes through this briefly when he learns that Arakawa, a role model to him, has been killed. As a result, he became despondent to the point the only thing his friends can do is look at him in pity.
• Hidden Depths:
  • One of the things revealed about Ichiban during his debut title's formal announcement is that he's a huge fan of the Dragon Quest series. Huge enough that the series producer/director Toshihiro Nagoshi actually got permission from Dragon Quest creator Yuji Horii to reference the series by name in the game.
  • Though he hides it well, Ichiban is capable of some serious bloodshed when pushed. It's established early on that Ichiban almost never fights "unfairly", meaning he actually allows enemies to get hits in because of his Dragon Quest obsession. During his time in prison, he sent three men to the hospital for harassing him after they disrespected the Arakawa family. It's worth noting that these men not only had him in a headlock, but opened the fight by smashing him over the head with a steel wrench, and in return he effortlessly beat them so bad that all of them had no teeth remaining by the end of the fight. And he doesn't even look hurt afterwards!
  • Ichiban can be pretty clever and knowledgeable despite his long stay in prison. He was, after all, a Yakuza kyodai for quite some time and thus has quite a bit of know-how in regards to business management and solving problems. For example, one of the arcs in chapter four revolves around a soapland that Ichiban has been hired to bodyguard in, and it's in this one instance that Ichiban gets to play Mr. Exposition because he was quite literally born in a soapland and knows how to manage them from his foster dad.
  • He has incredible business acumen for someone considered Book Dumb, since he took Ichiban Confections from a small little cornerstore to the top of Yokohama's regional Fortune 500 as Ichiban Holdings. Though this is helped by that Ichiban is a people person and humble enough to owe up for his day to day mistakes which shows its use in Shareholder meetings where he is willing to grovel, working under Sawashiro who instilled his ruthless work ethic to Ichiban which is actually of use in a business environment (unlike the life of a Yakuza where he fails to bring in money) and Nick Ogata's investment for the failing store.
  • He's not as Book Dumb as he seems, since he displays a knowledge of various topics by passing every one of the certifications, topics ranging from world history to music to games made by SEGA. Likewise, upon gaining the Certificate of Completion, he likens it to a college degree, and said he always wanted a degree.
• Honest Corporate Executive: As the president of Ichiban Confectionery, Ichiban essentially becomes a venture capitalist who inevitably grows the company from a snack shop to a MegaCorp. Despite this, he's honest enough that the game explicitly prevents him from using company funds for personal use since that would be embezzlement and overall takes an incredibly small cut from the business (making a maximum of 3 million yen per Shareholder meetings from a potentially multi-billion business).
• Hot-Blooded: He's pretty loud and bombastic, making dramatic proclamations and always the first to always rush into the fray. Makes sense considering he views himself as an RPG protagonist. However, it's treated as a bit of a flaw as his hot head often leads him to charging into situations without a plan, occasionally making things worse for himself. Kiryu gives him a lesson in controlling his temper.
• Humble Hero: Despite his incredible feats, Ichiban tends to downplay his accomplishments and/or place credit to his friends' support.
  • Despite being a multi-millionaire, he's happy with the small room in the Survive bar rather than moving somewhere more extravagant.
  • Upon being asked by Saeko if he's ever had any romantic attachments in his past, Ichiban simply told her that nobody in their right mind would be lining up to date someone as crummy as he is, especially so considering his criminal records.
• I Choose to Stay: Despite being offered a place at the table for the Tojo/Omi remnants' new security firm, Ichiban decides to stay in Ijincho to stay with his new team, as well as to continue his climb from "rock bottom" without any shortcuts. He also views it as his own way of continuing/finishing his Masumi's unfinished business.
• Idiot Hero: Played with, and ultimately subverted. Ichiban seems like this due to being Hot-Blooded and Book Dumb, and most of his enemies are happy to assume that it's a straight example of the trope. In spite of this, his activities throughout Like A Dragon prove him to be anything but. To wit:
  • He turns a small, struggling confectionary into a multi-billion dollar franchise,
  • He has proven time and time again to be quite good at manipulation, and his immense natural charisma is so intense that several of his skills explicitly weaponize it, allowing him to boost his team.
  • He makes a very solid appeal when he runs for office against Kume, once again proving his charismatic chops; in the same way, it makes him trustworthy enough that he's able to serve as a mediator between the Ijin Three, who are otherwise incredibly paranoid.
  • Most tellingly, at the end of the game he pulls off one hell of a Batman Gambit to expose Masato's schemes to the rest of Japan, thus causing his political career to collapse like a house of cards.
  • In Infinite Wealth, despite both Tomizawa and Chitose nearly ruining his arrival to Hawaii, not only does he manage to get through to them, but he also convinces them to join him. They end up becoming his strongest allies in his search for Akane. Tellingly, Chitose still calls him an idiot for his unwavering trust, but it comes across as an Insult of Endearment.
• Image Song: The Ichiban Song, a song declaring how Ichiban will triumph above all adversity and be the hero he was destined to become.
• Improvised Weapon: Just like all Yakuza protagonists before him, he is willing to use whatever he can get his hands on in a fight. Either picking something off the street or because of the RPG style of the game, use unorthodox weapons in his "Hero" job, while predominantly used with baseball bats has other improvised blunt weapons.
• Inelegant Blubbering: He breaks down into tears in the end as he begs Masato not to kill himself.
• Infectious Insanity: Played for Laughs. In Infinite Wealth, after having spent time around him, Kiryu starts to see enemies as transforming once he is made in charge of the group in Japan, which he and the others blame on Ichiban's heroic instincts spreading.
• Innocently Insensitive: Upon learning that there's a job center in Ijincho, he attempts to rally the homeless population into getting jobs only to be angrily told by Nanba that were it so easy most of them wouldn't be there in the first place since a lot of them are doomed by various circumstances outside of their control.
• I Owe You My Life: Twice. First when Arakawa saved him when he was a teenager (even giving up his pinky in the process) and later on as an adult when Nanba healed his bullet wound and nursed him back to health. He has a particular Undying Loyalty towards them as a result.
• Irony: A retrospective example - Kiryu's stated homeplace is in Yokohama, but his debut adventure (and the majority of them) are set in Kamurocho, in Tokyo. Meanwhile, Ichiban was quite literally born (and raised) in Shangri-La, which is located in Kamurocho, but the majority of his debut adventure sees him in Yokohama.
• Ironic Name: His name, Ichiban (一番), literally means "Number One". However, he was born with absolutely nothing and spent a huge chunk of his life as a mere street rat. It's also mirrored by his back tattoo (a dragonfish) and his title as the Dragon of Rock Bottom (Donzoko no Ryū). On the other hand, if read as a full name it fits him perfectly as "Kasuga Ichiban" can be read as the sentence "kasu ga ichiban", meaning "lowlife to number one"; the game's theme song includes a lyric that alludes to that.
• It's All My Fault:
  • He blames himself partially for both the Arakawa family falling to the Omi Alliance and Masato's fall into corruption because for the former he would have been able to do something if his sentence wasn't extended and for the latter he blames himself for not being there to prevent his Start of Darkness.
  • He does this again in Infinite Wealth for letting himself to be manipulated by Eiji who deliberately fakes his disability to use Ichiban's kindness and sympathy due to his history with Masato in order to initiate his plan to betray the heroes and lead Dwight's Barracudas to raid their hideout, which leads to Lani getting kidnapped, not to mention Wong and Hanawa's deaths.
• It's Personal: Considering how Tendo murdered his father (as Sawashiro told him after Arakawa was killed by Tendo) in cold blood, it's no surprise that Ichiban was fixated on kicking Tendo's shit in before exposing Masato.
• Jack of All Stats: As the protagonist he's statistically well-balanced with a primary class focused on both physical offense and support.
• Kill Sat:
  • By completing the Company Management minigame in Like a Dragon, he unlocks the "Essence of Orbital Laser", which lets him unleash a satellite death ray controlled by Ichiban Holdings upon his enemies at the touch of a button on his phone.
  • In Infinite Wealth, he can unlock the "Essence of Dondoko Laser", which is basically the same thing only the Dondoko Island NPCs show up to cheer him on.
• Large Ham: Ichiban can ham it up with the best of them. He uses this to his advantage in the video he made for his mother Akane in Infinite Wealth, where he plays up his background like a professional Kabuki actor. It worked with how viral the video went In-Universe. This isn't going into gameplay or the side activies, where doing something as simple as typing on a phone is done as over the top as possible.
• The Leader: A blend of Types 3 and 4. He's charismatic enough to draw together a group of people who would otherwise have never met each other, has a primarily red color scheme, wields a baseball bat the way a fantasy hero would his sword, and combines good damage output with healing and revival abilities.
• Like Father, Like Son: His tendency to form familial bonds with others and complete loyalty to those he considers family regardless of whatever crimes they've committed are fairly similar to his biological father, Arakawa. Masato at the end outright says he sees a lot of Arakawa in Ichiban, which he finds infuriating.
  • Arakawa's outfit from Chapter 1 is also available for him to wear upon completing the game as well.
• Locked Out of the Loop: Having been in jail for the entirety of the previous games, he knows very little about what's happened and knows none of the big shots who have risen since then.
• Loser Protagonist: In contrast to most of the series protagonists, who are generally treated as The Ace and are Living Legends capable of doing legendary feats single-handedly, Ichiban is a lowly underdog who was never able to rise any further than a grunt in a third-tier family, is considered weak by the standards of the series and starts the game proper as a 42 year old ex-con on the streets simply trying to make ends meet. Nonetheless, through his dogged nature and unrelenting optimism he gains a cadre of loyal companions that help him become the hero he's always dreamed of becoming.
• Loveable Rogue: Unlike Kiryu who's more stoic in nature and constantly questions the weird things he comes across, Ichiban is more eager, smiling often and fully embraces the fun and wacky side of things that he encounters. That said, engaging in substories early on will show that he still has limits to what he can deal with.
• Magnetic Hero: Ichiban's earnestness, loyalty and charisma to those he considers good people have earned him quite a few allies. For perspective, two members of his party previously tried to kill him but become staunch allies later on.
  • The same occurs in Infinite Wealth when he recruits Eric and Chitose, the former of whom tried to mug him, and the latter drugged him and left him naked on the beach. In both cases, he sees something in them despite their earlier actions that lead him to invite them into the team.
• Manchild: He always imagines life as a video game no matter how bad things get.
• Made of Iron: A bizarre case in that the instance of this occurs shortly after his birth. In an impressive feat of infantile strength, he managed to endure the same frigid conditions that gave Masato the hypothermia that'd confine him to a wheelchair, not to mention experiencing the shock of Masumi punching open the locked locker next to his and coming out completely unfazed and unharmed later on. Comments from Mitsuo imply that he regularly allows his enemies the opportunities to land blows on him mid-fight in every battle before powering through the damage to finish them off, out of his desire for 'fairness' in combat. Indeed, he's certainly capable of taking just as much of a beating as his predecessors despite not being as strong.
• Magikarp Power:
  • As befitting the man with the Dragonfish on his back, his Freelancer can be considered this. Since it's a class that has no equippable weapons it's usually forgotten about once the Hero class is obtained and by itself is typically incredibly weak. When properly leveled however, Ichiban gains some incredibly potent moves that can be carried over to other classes as well as boosts to his strength stat.
  • The Sujimancer class in Infinite Wealth is unique that most of the class' power comes from equipping Sujimon found throughout the game. Initially, it starts off weaker compared to Freelancer, but after the various Sujimon are trained up, it can become of the most potentially powerful classes in the game.
• Meaningful Name: His full name can be read as the sentence "kasu ga ichiban", roughly meaning "lowlife into number one", which alludes to his character arc being a loser who slowly rises up and becomes a hero, as is also symbolized by his tattoo and general Legendary Carp themes. The game's theme song, Ichiban-ka, includes the lyric "kasu ga ichiban toru gekokujou", literally meaning "a revolution where the lowlife becomes number one" while making a pun with Ichiban's complete name. Kasuga is also written with characters that can be read as "shunjitsu", or "spring sun", befitting Ichiban's bright and charistmatic personality.
• Minion with an F in Evil: Even when he was an actual gangster he was far too nice for the job, believing in either returning money to the people or finding loopholes to avoid collecting money from those struggling to make ends meet. This naturally made him none too popular with Sawashiro since it means he brought little actual money to the clan. The only thing that saves him is his unusually-strong relationship with his boss, Arakawa.
• Mirror Character:
  • To Kiryu. Both men are loyal, passionate and intelligent. However, they present themselves in opposite ways. On one hand, Kiryu generally appears as stoic and reserved, but gets emotional when things get tense and takes minigames seriously. On the other hand, Ichiban is outspoken, nerdy and friendly, but hides a strategic mind.
  • Also, to Majima. He shares Majima's flamboyant dress sense, exuberant nature, hot-headed temper and mastery of various weapons, one of which is - tellingly - a baseball bat. Both men are also much smarter than they let on, and prove to be extraordinarily competent businessmen. If anything, Ichiban might actually genuinely be a little crazy, unlike Majima, who is heavily implied to be mostly acting.
  • Not only that he can also be considered a mirror to Nishiki, same voice actor aside. He shares a lot of traits with Nishiki's Yakuza 0 self, in fact it can be inferred that he's a version of Nishiki that didn't go down a dark path.
• Money Mauling: Progressing through the Business Management side-storyline gives Ichiban access to the 'Stack Slap' line of attack skills, which involve him braining the enemy with a massive wad of cash. The third iteration (Ultimate Stack Slap) is one of his most powerful non-Essence attacks.
• Mr. Fanservice: Has just as much of a heroic build as Kiryu does albeit on the leaner side. Comparatively though, he's quite shy when he walks in on Saeko shirtless while the latter is only wearing a bathrobe.
• Mr. Imagination: Due to being such a huge Dragon Quest fan, Ichiban often embellishes random encounters with various people as RPG battles in his head. It's taken up to eleven after he gains the Hero's Bat, where ever since he sees the opponents becoming more fantasy-like with wacky designs and magical effects, furthermore during his fight with Kiryu, in which he imagines Kiryu as a giant silver dragon based on his back tattoo and himself as a literal Knight in Shining Armor, although that is somewhat justified by him being knocked out when he dreamt that.
• Mundane Made Awesome: A lot of the fantastical elements of the game are because of his imagination. For example, the summon mechanic, Poundmates, is just him calling someone for help on his cell phone. Of course, being extra, he dramatically dials the number, and imagines his phone exploding with power that pierces the heavens.

N-Y

• Nerves of Steel: Don’t let his goofy behavior fool you, the man can turn icy when needed. Early in the game he doesn’t so much as flinch when a Geomijul hitman fires a crossbow that grazes his right cheek and he shows absolutely no fear when Ryo/Masato points a gun at him in the ending.
• Nice Guy: He’s kind, earnestly believes the best of people, and goes out of his way to help anyone in need with far less reluctance than even Kiryu. Despite his temper and shortsightedness, there’s no one else you’d want at your side.
• Non-Idle Rich: He can become the head of a multi-billion yen megacorp, and can gain 3 million from one Shareholder Meeting straight to his pocket. That said, there's no option to retire to some island somewhere, he's nonetheless active in the story, and even becomes an Uncle Pennybags (investing over 20 mil to get Romance Workshop working at max, paying a million each to fund a giant roomba and a kid's surgery, and so on), willing to share the wealth through acts of philanthropy.
• Obfuscating Stupidity: Subtle, but still present. His level of insight and ability to persuade others are distinctly at odds with the video-game-obsessed washed-up yakuza he presents himself as. When he drops said persona and gets serious, he's very nearly as stoic, unflinching, and stone-cold badass as Kiryu.
• Oblivious to Love:
  • All of his potential love interests are the first ones to make the move, with him being utterly baffled when they do.
  • When he asks Saeko to tell him what the guy she is interested in is like, she starts naming off traits that rather blatantly obviously describe Ichiban...and his immediate response is "Wow, he sounds like a shithead." Averted in Infinite Wealth where it's obvious that he has feelings for her.
  • Has no clue about Chitose's feelings for him, Chitose quietly calling him clueless in Chapter 5 over it. In "Honolulu City Lights", Ichiban's audience interjections will occasionally be him insulting the man Chitose is singing about for being unaware of her feelings, not realizing that it's him.
• O.O.C. Is Serious Business: Much like Majima, Ichiban's goofy, carefree, immature personality vanishes with terrifying speed whenever he needs to get serious, leaving him every bit as stone-cold as Kiryu before him.
• Oh, Crap!:
  • Played for laughs in the Company Management side story when he realizes that Eri bought a new office building for 10 billion yen!^note Roughly 96 million USD, and that same amount of money was the driving force of the first game
  • Played straight in the beginning of 7 when Arakawa pulls out a pistol and shoots him dead.
  • Also has this reaction when Kume fatally stabs Masato in the end of 7.
  • Definitely has this reaction when both him and Kiryu arrive too late to save someone who made the mistake of crossing the Barracudas in Infinite Wealth.
• Older Than They Look: His exuberance belies the fact that he's 46 (as of 2023), making him older than when Kiryu was in 1/Kiwami, and the same age as Shun Akiyama. He also didn’t physically age much despite the 18 years in prison, with the main change being his hairstyle after getting out. He did look older in the first trailers, however, with more noticeable wrinkles and tired features. Played With in Infinite Wealth where, despite looking almost the same as he did in 7, many characters often call him out on his age, with Chitose even noting he's just a few years younger than her 50-year-old father.
• One-Man Army: Pointedly averted. Unlike every other series protagonist, Ichiban relies on the help of his friends when fighting. Past 7's first chapter and a few select moments later in the series, he never fights solo. One of the Party Chats has him claim to have won a 20-man brawl in middle school, a claim that absolutely nobody buys (or simply believes that he beat them in Virtua Fighter).
• Only Friend: While he also had Mitsuo, back in his days in the Arakawa Clan he was the caretaker of Masato Arakawa, whom he regarded as a brother regardless of how Masato actually felt about him (tolerance at best, barely-hidden contempt at worst).
• The Paladin: Owing to his being a massive fanboy of Dragon Quest, Ichiban's default Hero Job checks all the queues of being the classic Paladin. His Hero class is focused on hitting people really hard with a bat as well as buffing and healing the party through raw charisma alone.
• Parental Abandonment: He was told his mother was a prostitute who left him in the soapland after his birth, but that was only half true. In actuality his mother left him in the lockers to be picked up by his father Masumi, while on the run from his yakuza clan who were out to kill them. But due to a Contrived Coincidence Masumi picked up the wrong child, leaving him to be retrieved by his mother's former boss from the Shangri-la Soapland, who deemed the handover a failure, as he adopts the now-abandoned Ichiban in the hopes his mother would return for him someday.
• Pipe Pain: One of the weapons he can get for his "Hero" job is an iron pipe, a bit beat up but can still pack a wallop.
• The Power of Friendship: Said by Word of God to rely on this, in contrast to previous protagonists such as Kiryu who are a One-Man Army. Increasing his bond with his party members actually strengthens his tag attacks and unlocks access to new moves.
• The Profiler: A reoccuring quirk Ichiban displays over the course of the game is that while he may suck at lying, he has a rather sharp intuition on reading people and predicting what they will do. This comes to a head at the end where he makes an obvious bluff to Masato, knowing that even if Masato doubted him he'd still be too paranoid not to look into it.
• Proud to Be a Geek: He's a gamer himself, being a proud fan of Dragon Quest.
• Rags to Riches: When he's first taken (read: dumped into the garbage) at Yokohama he barely has 10 yen to his name and has to search under vending machines and collect cans in order to get money. By the end of the game he's a multi-millionaire (billionaire if you count his business funds) with multiple businesses due to being made the president of Ichiban Holdings and reaching the number 1 rank in Yokohama's business venture.
  The Bartender: Weren't you homeless just the other day? And now you're some corporate big shot?
• Ragtag Bunch of Misfits: Leads his own band consisting of himself, a bottom-barrel yakuza, a homeless ex-nurse, a former police detective, a former hostess turned bartender, a secretary, a Korean assassin and a Triad gangster.
  • You can also add a taxi driver turned con-artist and a runaway heiress-turned-housekeeper to this mix in the sequel.
• "The Reason You Suck" Speech: Not so much "reason you suck", but rather "reason why you're wrong". Either way, he has this to say after Masato's defeat -
  Masato: Back to this bullshit about family love?
  Ichiban: No! That's not it at all! No matter how much you fucked up... You know why Arakawa-san, Sawashiro, and I never gave up on you?! I'll tell you. There's no logic to it! It was because deep inside our hearts, we felt a connection to you! It's not some kinda clear-cut love-it-or-hate-it kind of emotion! You say no one appreciated you!? Bullshit! No one could stand to let you go! We never once abandoned you! It was all for you! The boss and Captain Sawashiro loved you... Get that through your thick skull, you dumbass!
• The Redeemer: In Infinite Wealth, he uses his job in Hello Work as a way to help rehabilitate ex-Yakuza, who face severe sanctions from the government. This includes directing one with experience in burglary to Adachi's private investigation firm, who uses his skills to help stores discover any potential blind spots. Similarly, he convinces Tomizawa to pull a Heel–Face Turn and join his and Kiryu's side against Yamai and the rest of Hawaii's gangs.
• Red Is Heroic:
  • Similar to Akiyama, Ichiban wears a red suit. Unlike him, Ichiban's suit is a little shinier, lacks stripes, and has a white undershirt. This effectively serves as an inversion of the color scheme of Kiryu's outfit.
  • This also may be a Meaningful Name Shout-Out, given that the Ichiban-gai, the famous neon entrance gate to Kabukichō, the real-life basis for Kamurocho, is a brilliantly-shining red color.
• The Real Remington Steele: Technically, he would have been the real Masato Arakawa had they never been Switched at Birth. Masato even changed his identity to the more publicly famous Ryo Aoki anyway.
• Raised by the Community: He was brought up by the owner of a soapland, the girls who worked there, and the so-called "undesirable" citizens of the red-light district. This gave him a unique and sympathetic perspective on the people who have to live in the seedier parts of town, particularly those who work in the sex industry.
• Red Oni, Blue Oni: The Red to most of his party's Blue, and especially to Masato Arakawa, his former sworn brother in the past. This carries over to present day, with Ryo Aoki being an even colder and more calculating Blue.
• Relationship Upgrade: Infinite Wealth revealed that he canonically became close enough with Saeko that he attempted to propose to her, only to be rejected.The rejection was so severe that neither party had talked to each other in over a year.
• The Reveal: As it turns out, he wasn't abandoned. He was left inside a coin locker by his birth mother Akane, who tried to hide him from his father Masumi Arakawa's enemies, the plan being for Arakawa to come for him when it was safe. Jiro Kasuga, a good friend and former boss of Akane, was asked to retrieve him should the handoff to his father not go as planned. Jiro raised Ichiban as his own in the expectation that Akane would come back for him.
• Rules Lawyer: Ichiban knows his way around yakuza hierarchies, patterns and rules, and frequently weaponizes this knowledge. Half of the plot is resolved because Ichiban goes straight to the source to tattle, holding crime leaders and mooks to account.
• Screw This, I'm Outta Here: Played for laughs. When Yasuda asks him to join the circus after having fought a bear, a tiger, and a chimp operating a digger (no lions, unfortunately), Ichiban ultimately decides to just run his ass out of there, renouncing animals and the circus in the process.
  • Does the same in the sequel when Bony Kashiwa attempts to recruit him as a stuntman after he LITERALLY RAN INTO ONCOMING TRAFFIC as a fill-in. He high-tails it, renouncing the film industry the entire way.
• Shirtless Scene: Gets quite a few during the course of the story, most notably during his fights against Kiryu and Tendo.
• Significant Birth Date: His birthdate is listed as January 1st, meaning he's born on the first day of the year as befitting someone who is literally Number One.
• Smarter Than You Look:
  • He's considered an idiot by many due to his hot-headedness and Cloudcuckoolander tendencies, but he pulls off one hell of a Batman Gambit to create Masato's Engineered Public Confession, actually managing to overcome his previous Bad Liar tendencies in the process.
  • On that note, he immediately recognizes Aoki as Masato when he first sees a picture of him as the former. Personally knowing the latter and having to catch up on the past ten years will do that.
  • He’s also very keen and logical when needed, particularly when it comes to criminal activities. He mocks Zheng’s threat that the rest of the Triads would come back for revenge by stating that leaders don’t rally the troops for every little fight their subordinates get into, particularly ones who got their butts kicked by homeless people. He also successfully argues that if the Geomijul kept stealing power from a bar and it gets shut down then they won’t get the power anyway so there’s no point in trying to keep it.
  • Likewise, the Company Management sidequest shows his excellent business acumen, taking a tiny cornerstore, and turning it into the most powerful company in Yokohama, and making him the multi-millionaire owner of a multi-billion yen MegaCorp.
  • He was also able to deduce that Tomizawa's friend was a Palekana spy due to the fact that he was addressed by name, despite not introducing himself.
• Son of a Whore: His background, which is why he takes offense when Kume says no one would be happy being raised by a whore. It’s the reason why his father is unknown and his mother disappeared on him. Turns out the truth is a bit more complicated than that.
• Spanner in the Works: In Infinite Wealth, who knew kindly helping a man getting into his wheelchair ended up changing things in the long run for him?
• Stock Shōnen Hero: Ichiban's a Yakuza who sacrificed 18 years of his life for his family, and when he was released from prison he had to claw his way from rock bottom. Even before his arrest he was sympathetic to others and was ready to fight for what he believed in. This gets deconstructed in that he was a poor debt collector for his family and would have to be told that working hard doesn't matter if you're homeless. However, he reconstructs the trope by amassing a following of loyal friends, proves himself a worthy successor to Kazuma Kiryu, and manages to save Japan from the machinations of Masato Arakawa/Ryo Aoki.
• Stone Wall: He's presently this compared to other main characters, from a story perspective. He's nowhere near as powerful as Kiryu, as agile as Majima, etc., but, as shown by baby Kasuga taking that cold locker like a champ, the same cold locker that put Masato Arakawa in a permanent wheelchair because it damaged him for life, he's every bit as Made of Iron as your typical big player.
• Stranger in a Familiar Land: After his prison term was up, he discovered Kamurocho had not only completely changed and gotten taken over by the Omi Alliance, but the Arakawa Family he knew had seemingly vanished, causing him a great deal of sorrow.
• Street Smart: What he lacks in formal education he makes up with in a solid understanding of underworld etiquette, an ability to read people and a talent for keeping his head in the midst of chaos.
• Street Urchin: Grew up as little more than a punk before becoming a Yakuza.
• Switched at Birth: He is actually Arakawa's biological son, not Masato. Due to them being placed in lockers right next to each other, Arakawa accidentally left his true son behind and took Sawashiro's instead.
• Talking Down the Suicidal: When Masato points a gun at his head in the ending Ichiban desperately tries to talk him out of it, ultimately being reduced to weeping as he pleads to not see the man he considers his brother die.
• Tall, Dark, and Handsome: He's 185 cm (6'1"), has a very distinctive dark spiky haircut, and is every bit as rugged and handsome as your average LAD protagonist.
• Tattooed Crook: His tattoo depicts a ryuugyo, also known as a dragonfish^note Not to be confused with the several species of real-life fish sometimes colloquially referred to as dragonfish, which is a cryptid reportedly sighted in Japan in the late 19th century (nowadays speculated to have probably been a sturgeon). Ichiban didn't feel that he was worthy of carrying a true dragon on his back, so he settled for this approximation which is merely ''like'' a dragon, and is occasionally said to be the "middle point" between a carp and a dragon. Saeko mistakes it for a pufferfish in one party chat.
• The Team Benefactor: Both in gameplay and story, in different ways:
  • In gameplay, as per usual, as the MC, the party's stuff and all expenses come out of his pocket. Adachi even says he feels bad that Ichiban pays for all their food in party banter. Good thing he becomes a multi-millionaire as of the end of his business sidequest.
  • In-story, he's this to Romance Workshop, since the workshop's return to form is because of him investing enough for Sumire to do so.
• This Is Gonna Suck: He does a decent job of hiding it, but you can hear him shitting himself at the idea of having to fight a fucking tiger in Chapter 10. Also has this reaction when fighting Charlotte-chan (another tiger, in case Qing Jin's wasn't enough) during the second Ringleader Roundup substory.
  Ichiban: Yeah, I'm with her on this one, Adachi-san. I don't wanna end up as a tiger snack.
  • He doesn't hide it as much when he's forced to fight both a giant shark and an equally giant squid in the climax of Infinite Wealth.
• Through the Eyes of Madness: A lighthearted, Played for Laughs version justifies Like A Dragon being a turn-based RPG, as it's all through Ichiban's Dragon Quest-influenced imagination that everything looks and behaves like that series. Heck, the first battle after he gains the Hero class, his overactive imagination makes the enemies look like they transformed into monsters, whereas the rest of the party see them as normal.
• Too Dumb to Live: The first chapter of Like a Dragon sees Masato give Ichiban money after they visit a hostess club together. Ichiban decides to use that money to cover for his failure to collect funds on the collection rounds he was sent on earlier that day, but then lies about its source. He might have actually been able to get away with it too if he hadn't forgotten to remove Masato's strip from around the money.
• Trademark Favorite Food:
  • Due to it practically being high end cuisine compared to the slop served in jail for 18 years, and reminding him of the outside world, he's adopted a love of Bread Rolls.
  • Likewise, if it's worth anything, he choose Beef Bowls as his last meal before heading to jail. He also developed a liking to Ijincho-styled Fin Sake.
  • According to his official bio, his favorite food is coppe-pan, a hotdog-like bread roll.
  • He absolutely loves lobster. This is despite owning a crawfish as a pet; a fact that surprises the party.
• Tranquil Fury: When he isn't being reckless and hot-blooded, he is very much this. Kume and his posse would find this out the hard way when they are protesting outside of Otohime Land not too long after it's been shut down.
  Ichiban: Don't let your protests go beyond shouting. You lay your hands on us, you pay the price.
• 2xFore: Two of his weapons are basically just pieces of construction wood used as blunt instruments. One of them is even on fire!
• Uncle Pennybags: Slowly shaping up to be this. By the end of the business minigame he’s a multimillionaire and two substories require him to donate a million yen for a child’s surgery and another million to help develop a giant Roomba. A late-game story objective even requires him to have three million yen to fund an election campaign for District Representative against Kume.
• Underestimating Badassery: When Kiryu challenges him to a fight, Ichiban urges him to reconsider; not because he's scared, but because he's such an emotional wreck at that point in the story that he's worried he might accidentally kill Kiryu. Needless to say, he had no idea who he was talking to and is quickly knocked out and back into his senses.
• Undying Loyalty: A key aspect of his character and part of the reason why he can amass allies so easily. Regardless of what his allies may do, he'll always stick by them. Despite Nanba's betrayal, Ichiban continued to try to help him because Nanba nursed him back to health after Ichiban was shot. This ends up causing Nanba to have a Heel Realization and pull a Heel–Face Turn. And even after Arakawa lied to Ichiban that he was turning himself into prison for the sake of the family and shot him shortly after he got out, the first thing Ichiban asks after Arakawa reveals he is no longer a yakuza is to be Arakawa's subordinate once again. Similarly, despite everything that Ryo Aoki has done he still sees Masato as his best friend and wants nothing more than to save the man from himself so that they can go back to the way things used to be. In the end, he displays this to his new team in rejecting a place at Dojima and Watase's new security firm to stay in Ijincho. He sees it as a way to repay both them and his late boss.
  • In Infinite Wealth, both Tomizawa and Chitose attempt to ruin his arrival in Hawaii at different points in time; Tomizawa attempted to get Ichiban thrown in jail under Yamai's orders, while Chitose drugged him, then stole his passport and his clothes while he was in a drug-induced stupor. Despite these setbacks, and with Kiryu's help, he was able to get through to the both of them and rally them to their side. Similarly with Eiji; even though his deception and betrayal hurt Ichiban deeply, he still considered him a friend due to the fact that they had fun upon initial arrival into the state, even if it wasn't genuine on Eiji's part. Ichiban didn't want Eiji to share the same fate as Masato, so he did his best to ensure Eiji had a chance to atone by turning himself in.
  • He is surprisingly this to Jo Sawashiro. Even though Sawashiro wasn’t the nicest boss to him, Ichiban still refers to him as captain even after the great dissolution. It’s to the point that Ichiban is the only one that doesn’t believe that Sawashiro is a traitor when the rest of the party suggests otherwise.
• Unskilled, but Strong: He's this when compared to the rest of his crew in his Hero job. He throws that bat around with little in the way of finesse, but, nonetheless, he's effective, and his Hero class is considered one of the best classes in the game.
• Upbringing Makes the Hero: As a child raised by the working class of Kamurocho who spent countless hours playing Dragon Quest, Ichiban developed a respect for the unappreciated of society, an overactive imagination and a desire to be a hero.
• Use Your Head: He surprises a Liumang grunt with a headbutt and one of his moves from his Freelancer class is called Headbutt Barrage.
• Used to Be a Sweet Kid: Inverted, actually. As an adult he’s an excitable, nerdy Manchild with a heart of gold but flashbacks as a teenager show that he was moody, violent and made a living by beating up people in order to steal their money.
• Vocal Dissonance: He has the same voice even in the cutscenes depicting him as a teenager. He shares this with Sawashiro during the latter’s own flashbacks.
• Warrior Prince: He and Masato Arakawa were Switched at Birth, meaning he's the real son of the head of the Arakawa Family.
• Weak, but Skilled: In a series where Cutscene Power to the Max is often in effect, Ichiban is the protagonist that ends up the most visibly winded after important battles and relies on the support of comrades to take on threats that other characters take on solo. All that is on top of the fact that Kiryu is a boss fight in Like A Dragon, and he shows just how powerful he is compared to the average mook (whom Ichiban isn't that much a step up from). He still manages to overcome stronger opponents by coordinating with his crew and earns the respect of legendary figures.
• Weirdness Magnet: Almost as much as Kiryu, as he encounters his own fair share of weird people and moments in the substories, which does include Gondawara from Yakuza 2, in the same baby themed room in a diaper no less.
• We Cannot Go On Without You: The main stipulation to fights in Like A Dragon is that if Ichiban is defeated, it will be an immediate loss, regardless of how well the others are doing, even if there is an available revive ability on hand. This makes the boss fight against Kiryu all the more dangerous if Saeko and/or Eri are in the party, since that will mean Ichiban will be targeted more often. It also makes the climactic battle against Tendo especially dangerous, as he can use his One-Hit Kill "God's Right Hand" skill to instantly knock out Ichiban and give you a Game Over if you're particularly unlucky or unprepared.
  • Due to Infinite Wealth having two different party leaders (Kiryu being Party Leader in Japan, while Ichiban is the leader in Hawaii), this is heavily Downplayed, as the protagonist who isn't Party Leader that gets knocked out can be easily revived like any other party member. As opposed to their KO resulting in a Game Over.
• We Used to Be Friends: This is his relationship with Masato Arakawa a.k.a Ryo Aoki in the present.
• Who Names Their Kid "Dude"?: More than a few people think that "Ichiban" must be a fake name that he came up with rather than his actual one.
• Willfully Weak: The justification for turn-based combat is that Ichiban deliberately lets his enemies get some hits in since he processes fights as JRPG encounters.
• Wisdom from the Gutter: Makes an appeal while debating Kume, both owning his criminal past and advocating for the grey zone residents with an impassioned speech about how folks deserve to be treated like people even if they've fallen through the cracks and on hard times. It ends up going viral almost immediately.
• Would Hit a Girl: While a fight doesn’t actually happen, he does make it clear to Seong-Hui that he’s fine with fighting her if she attacked. Instead she sends her men after the party and then concedes when they are defeated.
• Wrestler in All of Us: His Freelancer job has wrestling moves including a dropkick, atomic drop, and a German suplex.
• You Are Too Late: A Chekhov's Gag of sorts where Sawashiro comments he's always late in reporting back to him. It's played entirely for drama much later on when it's revealed Sawashiro wanted him to arrive in time to stop his murder of Hoshino, but Ichiban still arrives all too late, just moments after Sawashiro had already murdered the latter.
  • Played for an even darker turn in Infinite Wealth when he, Kiryu, and Tomizawa arrive too late to rescue a thief from being brutally murdered by the Barracudas.
• You Called Me "X"; It Must Be Serious: One particularly notable instance of this comes in the English Dub. When trying to convince Ryo Aoki not to kill himself, Ichiban drops the "Young Master" title and begs Masato to not go through with it.
• You Have GOT to Be Kidding Me!: After having failed to keep a bear and a tiger in their cages, Ichiban has pretty much had enough of Yasuda's shit when his chimp Clara escapes from her cage. And no, he's not too happy about having to fight Clara operating a digger, either.
• Younger Than They Look: Initially at age 24, he sports a full beard that makes him look as such. Inverted however after his 18 years in prison, as save for his hairstyle his looks have hardly changed, making him look younger for his age by then.

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