Characters / Yakuza: Like a Dragon

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

These are the characters that debuted in the game Yakuza: Like a Dragon.

For the new protagonist Ichiban Kasuga, see his entry here.
For the entries on the returning characters:

Kiryu's entry is here
Majima's entry is here.
See the respective entries on these pages for Daigo Dojima here, Taiga Saejima here, and Masaru Watase here.

Index

• The Heroes of Tomorrow

The Omi Alliance

Kansai’s largest yakuza organization. Based in Sotenbori, Osaka, a major entertainment district in the west that rivals Kamurocho, Tokyo in the east. After the fall of the Tojo Clan as a result of the police policy known as the “Kamurocho 3K Operation,” the Omi Alliance took control of Kamurocho.

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Yosuke Tendō

Voiced by: Miou Tanaka (Japanese), John Eric Bentley (English)

Assistant-captain of Omi Alliance, and patriarch of Ryudo Clan, a top-rank gang in Omi. An Omi Alliance executive who knows he looks good in a three piece suit. He was once a famous pro boxer, but ended up in the yakuza following a scandal.

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• Achilles' Heel: Despite his physical might his lack of support skills makes him highly vulnerable to status ailments, especially Poison. A reliable way to make his battle much more bearable is to use the Nancy-chan summon to poison him at the start of the fight, which will deal a tick of damage that he has no way of healing at the start of each of his turns.
• Ambition Is Evil: He only agreed to the disbanding of the Omi Alliance because he knew a splinter faction would form from those resisting, which he plans to take over as the new singular head.
• Bait the Dog: He's introduced as a Boisterous Bruiser who helps Ichiban and company fight against an entire room of Omi, who are outraged at the disbanding of the Omi Alliance. Then he kills Arakawa.
  • Even his actions just prior to the murder of Arakawa counts as this. He steps in front of Arakawa, blocking Ishioda and his assassin with his own body, and even points them out to Arakawa. Then he aims a gun at Arakawa and pulls the trigger.
• Baritone of Strength: He has an incredibly deep voice that adds to his intimidating aura and status assistant-captain of the Omi Alliance. Also counts as Evil Sounds Deep when he faces off against Ichiban after turning on Arakawa and joining Masato.
• The Big Guy: He towers over the party, and his sheer mass rivals Saejima. In his prime he was a heavyweight boxer, which would have meant he was at least 200 pounds. By the looks of things he kept on the weight with age.
• Blood Knight: He's always itching for a good fight. When Watase announces that he's disbanding the Omi Alliance, alongside Daigo doing the same for the Tojo, rather than challenge the decision he willingly defends the two of them alongside Ichiban's group against a entire room full of Omi, just because it was a room full of people he could fight.
• Bond Villain Stupidity: Ishioda accuses him of this when he simply ignores Ichiban the first time they meet, mocking him as someone who saves the best for last rather than taking it while it's there. Later on, when Tendo foils his plans to assassinate Arakawa he tosses this back at him by saying that he's the kind to jump the gun and shows that he was merely biding his time by killing Arakawa after earning his trust.
• Boxing Battler: He's a former professional boxer who in the past was close to achieving the title of World Champion and has a tendency towards boxing metaphors in the English dub. According to Nanba he was one of the best of his time. In the latter phases of his fight, he even starts using rope-a-dope tactics against the party.
• The Brute: He's both incredibly tall and heavily muscled. It's said he was a heavyweight boxer in his prime, and very few Japanese contend in that class. Appropriately enough, he hits like a truck and shrugs off almost anything you can throw at him. Unlike other examples however, he's pretty far from dumb.
• Calling Your Attacks: During his boss fight, he spends a turn indicating what attack he'll do before doing it on his next turn. According to Nanba, this was his gimmick in the ring when he was still a boxer.
• Chronic Backstabbing Disorder: He fights against the Omi Alliance members themselves after they riot in response to the Omi's disbanding, seemingly setting himself up as an ally to Ichiban and Arakawa. Then he kills Arakawa and allies himself with Masato. And then he kills Ishioda, who was also working for Masato, via a bomb.
• Climax Boss: From the dramatic music to his absurdly large health pool to the multitude of attacks at his disposal that can completely eat through your HP, he's basically the final boss in all but position. The fight with Masato afterwards is more of a wrapping up of plot points than anything else.
• Combat Pragmatist: He talks a lot about being a boxer and fights you with his fists, but he dons a pair of brass knuckles halfway through the fight. Considering he's outnumbered by armed opponents, it's hardly cheating.
• Creepy Shadowed Undereyes: He's handsome and healthy for his age, but his absolute hound dog eyes are almost disarming.
• Dragon-in-Chief: While Ryo Aoki is the Big Bad and technically the final boss fight in the game, Tendo's boss fight is more or less the last real hurdle to overcome in the game.
• The Dreaded: Only to Nanba, who followed Tendo's career when he was still a boxer, but Nanba talks about it enough to start to make the party worry.
• Enemy Mine: He briefly joins Ichiban's side during the scuffle at the Omi Headquarters, though for no other reason than to satisfy his Blood Knight tendencies.
• Faux Affably Evil: He's charming for sure, but Tendo doesn't care about anyone but himself, even willing to backstab his allies to get ahead. Poor Arakawa found out the hard way, after the man found Ishioda ready to assassinate him anyways.
• Genius Bruiser: He's quite savvy and calculating, and has more than enough muscle to back his schemes up.
• A Glass of Chianti: Casually sitting on a desk and drinking from a glass of wine when the heroes finally confront him at the Arakawa Family's office in Millenium Tower.
• I Coulda Been a Contender!: Was a famous boxer but never made it to the top because of a scandal. Nanba explains that Tendo was bribed to take a dive and beat the fixers to death when they didn't pay him. Tendo joined the Omi Alliance hoping he could get another shot at the top.
  • It's worth noting that Tendo competed on the world stage in the men's heavyweight division, which most boxing bodies list as 200 pounds and over. In reality, no Japanese boxer has ever been a contender for the world title of any heavyweight boxing division ever. Japanese fighters tend to be shorter and lighter than western boxers, and though there are Japanese heavyweights out there, they tend to have few opponents domestically and perform poorly internationally due to inexperience. So while there have been many Japanese world champions, none have been heavier than Middleweight, or over 160 pounds. This would make Tendo a trailblazer for Japanese boxing, and possibly a national hero had he succeeded.
  • Exemplified in the name of his boss theme 'Triplet After Triplet.' Triple champions are considered paragons of boxing. A triplet after triplet would make someone a sextuple champion, something almost completely unheard of in real life and exemplifying the level of ambition Tendo has.
• It's All About Me: He puts up a chummy front, but in the end, he only cares about getting himself ahead. It leads him to backstab both Ishioda and Arakawa.
• Large and in Charge: He was a Heavyweight back in his boxing days and is described as being "built like a bull".
• Lightning Bruiser: During his boss fight, he's fast enough to have his turns back-to-back before Ichiban's party can have theirs.
  • If you are not careful this can quickly turn into an Oh, Crap! moment as it's scarily easy for him to start his charge for his One-Hit Kill attack God's Right Hand and then immediately use it right afterwards, so if you are not careful with Ichiban he can immediately end the fight if you get seriously unlucky.
• Made of Iron: The intro to his boss fight starts with him completely no-selling a dropkick to the chest. It becomes a case of Gameplay and Story Integration considering he also has one of the highest HP counts of any story boss in the game on top of being resistant to physical damage.
• Maou the Demon King: He's meant to evoke the image of an archetypal "demon lord" / maou-type Final Boss character in Ichiban's RPG fantasy, residing at the top of The Very Definitely Final Dungeon (which Nick refers to as the "demon lord's castle"). When he's encountered he can even be seen sipping on A Glass of Chianti while a thunderstorm starts brewing. He's not the actual Final Boss or even the Big Bad, of course, but he fits all the classic tropes more than Aoki, right down to not having much of a character arc beyond being a super-evil and super-strong menace for the heroes to beat, much like many NES-era antagonists. Appropriately, his irezumi is of a blue dragon to represent his status as the metaphorical dragon Ichiban needs to slay.
• Marathon Boss: His HP count is absurd by story boss standards.
• Not Worth Killing: In their first proper meeting, after being properly introduced Tendo gets up from his seat and... proceeds to walk right by Ichiban and his gang, stating that Ichiban isn't worth his fists while stating that he's certainly earned his interest.
• One-Steve Limit: Averted in two ways:
  • He shares the same name as the hermit that served as Saejima's trainer in 5.
  • His clan name, Ryudo, is almost the same as the friendly clan from 3 though they are written in different characters in Japanese.
• Politically Incorrect Villain: Though he commends Ichiban for having the balls to face off against him, he also makes a classist crack at Ichiban's upbringing, calling him "dumpster-raised".
• Power Fists: Partway through his fight he slaps on a pair of knuckle dusters, which make his punches strong enough to cause craters on the ground as well as to shatter incredibly thick panels of glass.
• Psychotic Smirk: He flashes one right before shooting Arakawa. He notes to Ichiban later that his smile was the last thing Arakawa ever saw.
• Punch! Punch! Punch! Uh Oh...: The fight with him starts with Ichiban dropkicking him and punching him three times in the chest, only to find Tendo not budging a single inch.
• The Resenter: He introduces himself as a man Masumi Arakawa stole his rightful seat from. While for most of the game he doesn't act that bothered about it, it explains a lot of his final actions.
• Smarter Than You Look: His background as a former boxer would imply that he's just another brute who got by through violence, but Tendo proves capable of power plays of his own while keeping his cards close to his chest.
• The Sociopath: He's superficially charming and friendly, but he thinks absolutely nothing of killing anyone if he thinks it will further himself, and he'll do so with a casual smile on his face. He's more high-functioning than most examples considering he's actually capable of long-term planning.
• Strong and Skilled: As a former heavyweight, he's got both the physique and experience that such a position would entail and is constantly talked up as a physical threat.
• Tattooed Crook: He has a dragon on his back (more specifically a seiryuu, last seen with the Final Boss of Yakuza 0). Its blue coloration acts as a Shout-Out to the One-Winged Angel form of the Dragonlord in Dragon Quest, reflecting Tendo's Maou the Demon King motif.
• Villain Respect: In the climax he admits that Ichiban has massive balls considering all he's done up that point and after he and his crew take him down Tendo mutters out "Not bad...".
• Villainous Breakdown: A minor case when after already finishing his boss fight, Ichiban proclaims that his loyalty to Arakawa will be strong enough to finish knocking him out, in response to Tendo previously bragging how there's no such thing as loyalty. Tendo can only respond by furiously going in for one last charge.
• Virtue Is Weakness: He sees the smile he gave Arakawa after shooting him as a message to him that loyalty doesn't mean a thing in the yakuza world.
• Walking Spoiler: Since he only plays his hand in the climax, much of his actions has a huge impact there.
• Would You Like to Hear How They Died?: He seems to take particular pleasure in rubbing Arakawa's death in Ichiban's face.

Reiji Ishioda

Voiced by: Show Hayami (Japanese), Rino Romano (English)

Assistant-captain of Omi Alliance, and patriarch of Ishioda Familly, a top-rank gang in Omi. Another Omi Alliance executive, who hides the large sword scar on his face with sunglasses. He is a violent yakuza known for his daring behavior, who takes what he wants through brute force.

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• Ax-Crazy: The first time he’s seen proper he’s driving a wrecking ball and attempts to smash Saeko with it. After the fight he’s gleefully and impatiently asking his Bleach Japan cronies if the party have been turned into ‘pancakes’. In his final battle, he has the ability to inflict Fear on the entire party, with Ichiban noting that him being a functioning psychopath is probably his greatest strength.
• Brooklyn Rage: As per one of the typical ways to localize a Kansai accent, along with localizing his rough gangster temperament, he has a Brooklyn/Boston accent in the English dub.
• The Brute: Of Masumi's lieutnants. Sawashiro has been Masumi's second in command for years and Tendo is said to be Masumi's favorite making Ishioda the first in the frontline when it comes to invading other territory or pure violence. He gets a promotion from Aoki.
• Co-Dragons: He's this to Ryo Aoki aka Masato Arakawa alongside Sawashiro as the main muscle of the Omi Alliance's occupational forces. He ends up being replaced by Tendo near the end after Tendo kills Arakawa.
• Combat Pragmatist: When actually fought on foot, he carries a gun and isn't afraid to use it. It's as deadly as it should be and can very quickly take down a character (including Ichiban) if you're not careful. He'll also grab any furniture within reach to smash over your head.
• Combat Sadomasochist: According to Saeko, Ishioda seems to actually enjoy taking hits in a fight.
• Counter-Attack: He will counter any attack that doesn't floor him with a harsh kick. When he Turns Red, his counter is upgraded to his dreaded Gunshot.
• Even Evil Has Standards: As vicious as he is, even he takes pause when an unstable Sawashiro graphically gouges the eye of a Tojo patriarch. However, it's less the act itself so much as Sawashiro having the audacity to commit a brazen act of murder during a clan meeting and attempting to assert authority after doing so. But it nevertheless shows that even he is capable of restraint when the situation calls for it.
• Evil Counterpart: To Osamu Kashiwagi, another rugged yakuza with a scar on his face, who serves as Number Two of their respective organisations. Unlike Kashiwagi who, despite his intimidating looks, acts level-headed even in dire situations, Ishioda is just as violent as he appears to be, with a tendency to settle problems with force even if it seems unnecessary.
• Foil: He and Tendo contrast in how they behave and operate. While Ishioda is more active as an antagonist, Tendo is more patient and prefers to wait for the opportune moment to make his move. While Ishioda is able to hide his bloodlust while still getting things done, Tendo hides his scheming nature behind his brutish image of an ex-boxer. Finally, while Ishioda is largely subservient in his dealings with Aoki, Tendo is more assertive in how he's willing to question Aoki's actions as well as talking back.
  • Ishioda is lanky and slim, and has to use guns, henchmen and even construction equipment to get by, but he absolutely loves to fight and is quick to resort to violence. Tendo is a massive slab of muscle and his experience as a professional boxer allows him to take on the whole party unarmed and unaided and nearly win, but he's incredibly cunning and prefers strategy and subterfuge to outright aggression.
• Flunky Boss: He's never fought alone in any of his boss fights; the first time you fight him, he relies on a wrecking ball, the second time, he's fought alongside Nanba and some Bleach Japan members, the third time sees him with an entourage of thugs immediately after a fight with Mabuchi, and the final time, he's fought alongside Mirror Face (who is disguised as Adachi.)
• Good Scars, Evil Scars: He got a large scar over his eye partially covered by his sunglasses. In his case, it shows how violent he can be.
• Ink-Suit Actor: His character design is basically Show Hayami with a goatee and scar over the left eye. He's even got the hairstyle down pat.
• Limit Break: Essence of Rage. He'll use a nearby furniture to smash your character, dealing heavy damage on top of stunning them. And the arena where you fight him for the last time is littered with furniture.
• Mask of Sanity: As noted above, he's actually a bloodthirsty maniac deep down but is able to restrain himself for the most part. Ichiban notes that his ability to hide this part of himself is probably how he rose to being a Captain.
• Not Me This Time: Near the end of the game, Ichiban confronts Ishioda to stop him from assassinating Sawashiro as well as to confront him about Arakawa's death. When defeated, he reveals that while he did attempt to assassinate Arakawa he was ultimately beaten to it by Tendo.
• Recurring Boss: He's fought four times in the game.
• Smug Snake: He's violent and dangerous, but his recklessness means that he tends to jump the gun and gets sloppy with his work, as noted by Tendo. Even when fighting the heroes with a wrecking ball it takes very little for them to trick him into thinking that he won.
• Uncertain Doom: After Reiji was defeated by Ichiban and his gang, he realizes that the building they were fighting on was rigged with a bomb planted by Tendo's men. However, it was too late as it blew apart. Thankfully, Ichi and his crew (as well as Mirror Face) survived, but since we didn't get any mentioning from Reiji, it is presumed that he was the only one who died from the explosion. If nothing else the scene of the escape shows him still slumped over the table right on top of the bomb while the rest of the party run for it which makes his survival even more unlikely.
• Villain: Exit, Stage Left: He gets beaten at least twice with no forms of escape, but always shows up without issue later on. Mostly because the party doesn't take him prisoner or restrain him in any way, like they did with Ogasawara.
• Villainous Crush: He seems to have a thing for Saeko, and even laments having to possibly kill her with his wrecking ball machine given that she's "definitely [his] type".
• You Have Failed Me: Is on the receiving end of this. Masato allows Tendo to kill him after he fails to kill Sawashiro.

Mirror Face

A hitman with the ability to impersonate anyone, who is known for disguising his hits as accidents. Those in the criminal underworld consider him to be the "perfect hitman".

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• The Big Guy / The Brute: For someone who's impersonating either Adachi or Tendo, Mirror Face is definitely big.
• Crazy-Prepared: Aside from his ability to perfectly physically replicate anyone, he does enough research on his covers to know anything they should reasonably know. Unfortunately, this actually backfires on him when he disguises himself as Adachi, since Ichiban is able to tell the difference between the two by quizzing them on traffic laws and attacking the one who answers correctly.
• Do Well, But Not Perfect: He falls into this trap when disguised as Adachi, since he knew traffic laws like the back of his hand while the real Adachi doesn't.
• Dual Boss: He's fought alongside Ishioda.
• Enemy Mine: After Aoki betrays him, he assists Ichiban and co. in exposing his crimes for the sake of sweet, cold vengeance.
• Even Evil Has Standards: Played for laughs. He of all people can't help but to be utterly baffled at Adachi's lack of basic traffic knowledge despite being a former DMV instructor.
• Evil Is Bigger: We never see what he really looks like and apparently height and build aren't issues for his impersonation skills. Still, the two characters he impersonates through the course of the story, Adachi and Tendo, both happen to be very large men.
• The Faceless: We never see what his true face looks like. The glimpse of him we see in surveillance footage has his head heavily obscured.
• Imposter Forgot One Detail: While impersonating Adachi, Mirror Face overestimated how much the real Adachi knew of traffic laws (read: little-to-none), which earns the assassin a punch to his face from Ichiban when he correctly answers the imposter-test question.
  • Subverted when impersonating Tendo. Despite not having his Kansai accent, Masato and his men don't even notice.
• Master of Disguise: He can replicate the appearance and voice of anyone regardless of their build.
• Mistreatment-Induced Betrayal: He states outright that he helped Ichiban set up Masato's Engineered Public Confession because Masato and Tendo tried to kill him for his failure.
• Mirror Boss: No pun intended, but during his boss fight, he takes on the appearance of Adachi and uses his base moveset. That said, several skills he performs are unique to Mirror Face alone and cannot be copied by Adachi at all.
• Screw This, I'm Outta Here: Disappears after helping Ichiban’s party expose Aoki despite being a formidable fighter on his own right. Justified since while he wants revenge against Aoki, he doesn’t really care if Ichiban’s party survives the ensuing fight, especially since they already uploaded the confession online.
• Small Role, Big Impact: Shows up only at the last couple of chapters with little foreshadowing but without him Aoki’s Engineered Public Confession wouldn’t have been possible.
• Spot the Imposter: He forces the team into this scenario while disguised as Adachi, forcing Ichiban to discern the real one by quizzing them on traffic laws. He punches out the one who answers accurately, with Mirror Face declaring Adachi a stain on civil servants everywhere.
• You Have Failed Me: Alongside Ishioda, Masato allows Tendo to kill him for failing to kill Sawashiro via a desk bomb. However, he survives and turns against Masato in response.

The Arakawa Family

A third generation family of the Tojo Clan, the Arakawa Family was established by Masumi Arakawa known as “Arakawa the Assassin”. Thanks to a police policy known as the “Kamurocho 3K Operation,” the Tojo Clan had fallen. The police and the Omi Alliance of Kansai yakuza had completely taken over, and the one who created this new Kamurocho was none other than Masumi Arakawa.

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Masumi Arakawa

Voiced by: Kiichi Nakai (Japanese), Taishi Murata (Child Japanese), George Takei (English), Johnny Yong Bosch (Young English), Zach Aguilar (Child English) ^{Other Languages} Zou Liang (Chinese)

Masumi Arakawa in the year 2019.

^{click here to see Masumi Arakawa in the year 2000.}

The leader of the Arakawa Family of the Tojo Clan. Born and raised as the son of a popular theater troupe, he has been all over the country, but someone shot and killed his father, the chairman of the troupe, which led him to the yakuza.

In the past, he was known as the best martial artist in the Tojo Clan, and for that reason, the Arakawa Family was established as a third-generation family of the Tojo Clan, and he was feared as "Arakawa the Assassin". He meets Ichiban Kasuga by chance as a boy and becomes his sponsor.

After information about the Tojo Clan was leaked to the police, the Tojo Clan was eliminated from Kamurocho, which provided a major service to the Omi Alliance’s advance into Kamurocho. With his achievements recognized, he is currently the substitute wakagashira, essentially the Number 2 man in the Omi Alliance.

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• Absurdly Youthful Father: Barely. He was 18 when his son was born.
• Abusive Parents: His mother was a cruel woman who was emotionally and physically abusive to him. She constantly berated him, took any money he earned, and was the one who gave him the giant scar on his face.
• Ambiguous Situation: Did he ever figure out that Ichiban was his biological son and kept it a secret or was he as far in the dark about it as Ichiban was? Did he ever find out about Akane's survival or Masataka Ebina being his son?
• Arranged Marriage: He was in one of these relationships with the daughter of the Hikawa Family's patriarch. It fizzled out due to mutual disinterest and his love for Akane. The family's patriarch and their son Masataka did not take it well...
• Badass Longcoat:
  • As a high-ranking Yakuza, he's always seen wearing a black longcoat. A guy with a name like Arakawa the Assassin can't look his best without one...
  • Ichiban can also wear his biological father's attire (as it appears prior to his incarceration) as well.
• Batman Gambit:
  • Left a key item with Ichiban and banked on his good nature to lead him toward looking into the Ijincho groups, knowing Bleach Japan had its eyes set on destroying the grey zones there. He trusted in Ichiban enough to get this done, despite having to fake a You Have Outlived Your Usefulness on the poor guy and giving him a faulty counterfeit that got him in even more trouble first.
  • Even Ichiban's survival was due to Arakawa's intricate planning. Arakawa used a hidden and obtuse system of corpse disposal to cover Ichiban's survival. Arakawa had an agreement with the homeless camp in Ijincho, stating that they were dispose of any bodies that the Arakawa family delivered. However, there was a secret rule that only the leader of the homeless camp and the head of the Arakawa family know about: if the body was alive, the homeless camp would do everything in its power to save them. Thanks to this, Ichiban stayed alive without the risk of being pursued by yakuza.
• Beware the Nice Ones:
  • For a Yakuza Patriarch, he's very personable, and treats his subordinates well. Don't let that decieve you into thinking he isn't incredibly dangerous, though. This is best demonstrated when he unflinchingly cuts off a finger with zero moments' notice in order to save Ichiban's life.
  • A flashback in the Infinite Wealth shows that he was about on par with the likes of Kiryu and Majima in his youth. And unlike them, he showed no qualms about graphically killing the goons who got in his way.
• Big Good: Forms a Triumvirate with Daigo Dojima and Masaru Watase, all three using the whole Bleach Japan fiasco to formally end both the major clans of Japan.
• Conspicuous Gloves: He wears a glove over his left hand to hide the the finger he lost for Ichiban.
• Cool Old Guy: He's understanding enough toward the younger Ichiban that he manages to relate Yakuza obligations to him in RPG terms, something which Ichiban has an easier time grasping.
• Cross-Cast Role: As a teenager he played female roles, being an onnagata in his family's Kabuki shows.
• Dark and Troubled Past: As a boy, he was part of a small theatre troupe with his mother and father, but the former was horribly abusive, taking his hard-earned money to go fool around with her lover, threatening him with bodily harm whenever he resisted, and being heavily Implied to have been the one who gave him his distinctive scar. His father, wanting to cheer him up after suffering such treatment as well as celebrate a successful performance, takes him out to have Peking duck at a Chinese restaurant, but while Masumi goes to use the restroom, his father is abruptly murdered by Ryuhei Hoshino for losing a suitcase of counterfeit bills he was supposed to transport and he comes back just in time to see his corpse. Shortly after, his mother, who got her husband killed in the first place by stealing the suitcase, is murdered, disbanding the troupe and orphaning him, forcing him to join a low-ranking Yakuza family specializing in disposing bodies to survive. During this time, his boss pretty much forced him to go out with his daughter despite him already being in a relationship with a girl named Akane, forcing them into a Secret Relationship. Once Akane got pregnant however, he's forced to reveal the truth to his boss, who has him beaten to a bloody pulp before ordering his men to murder Akane and their newborn son. Despite his best efforts, Akane is still presumed dead and while he's able to save his son by telling Akane to hide him in a coin locker, the kid catches hypothermia due to the cold and ends up paralyzed from the waist down as a result. And if that wasn't enough, it turns out that by some cruel coincidence of another couple ditching their baby in the locker adjacent to where his is, he grabbed the wrong kid, which he's implied to have realised at some point after meeting Ichiban, his true son.
• The Don: At 2001, he's the head of a fairly small Yakuza family. In 2019, he's the Acting Captain of the Omi Alliance.
• The Dreaded: Cultivated this reputation as Arakawa the Assassin, while his family was small they were known as terrifying killers. By the time of the game he is well-respected and mellow.
• Disproportionate Retribution: The victim of it. He refused to marry the daughter of his family's patriarch because he was in love with Akane and respectfully told this to the man. The patriarch's response? Send his entire Yakuza family and hire hit squads to murder him, Akane, and their baby! Even after killing his way through the family and torturing the man to rescind the order, the patriarch refused to oblige and let himself be tortured to death rather than admit he might have overreacted.
• Establishing Character Moment: He casually proposes trading one of his fingers for Ichiban's life, and when this shocks the low-grade Yakuza thugs around him into silence, he grabs the boss's knife and does it himself in a matter of seconds. This establishes to the player that behind the friendly, fatherly patriarch is a man willing to do whatever it takes to see his goals through.
• Et Tu, Brute?: He was completely caught off guard when Tendo killed him due to Tendo having seemingly been a steadfast ally to him up until that point.
• Forced into Evil: After Masato was elected Governor, he forced Arakawa to leak the Tojo's secrets under the threat of ordering the arrest of his entire family and every family afterwards until someone agreed. And after he did, he was forced into the role of one of Masato's agents, the role of the greedy and cowardly traitor. It's pretty galling when you remember that Masato is Arakawa's son (albeit not by blood).
• Good Parents: Zig-zagged somewhat. He's shown treating Masato, his adoptive son, with compassion when he's lamenting his condition in a flashback after Sawashiro's defeat. With The Reveal that Ichiban was his true son all along in hindsight, he was also this to Ichiban, saving his life at the last minute from getting beaten to death by a vicious yakuza family as well as sparing him from Yubitsume at the last second despite his incompetence at bringing any money to the Arakawa Family. Though he did have to pull a You Have Outlived Your Usefulness on Ichiban during the meeting with the Omi Alliance, he would ultimately have Ichiban be a major Spanner in the Works in his plan to dissolve the Tojo Clan and Omi Alliance, throwing a major wrench in Aoki's plans. That being said, he still lied about the true reason as to why Ichiban had to serve eighteen years in prison, though he's clearly guilt-ridden about it when he refers back to it when talking with Ichiban. He also obviously wasn't present in Ebina's life, which helped fuel Ebina's resentment.
• Good Scars, Evil Scars: He's got a very large scar on his right cheek. It helps contribute to his intimidating facade.
• Greater-Scope Paragon: Had he not shot him the way he did, Ichiban would've never met the Ijin Three as well as be the one to put an end to Masato's grab for power by the end of the game, since his dissolution of the Tojo Clan and Omi Alliance, through Daigo's approval and Watase's help, also made the Omi little more than an obstruction since Masato relied on them as his muscle.
• Hero of Another Story: His backstory, skills, and implied past show the makings of yet another Yakuza protagonist. Infinite Wealth has a flashback of him on a One-Man Army assault against the Hikawa family ending with him killing the patriarch after a bout of Cold-Blooded Torture. It's very reminiscent to when Kiryu and Majima did something similar (minus the torture) when going up against the Dojima family.
• Hero with Bad Publicity: More in the yakuza world than the world at large. In the present, he's considered a greedy coward and traitor for selling out the Tojo's secrets to Ryo Aoki. Turns out he did so with the explicit permission of Daigo Dojima to keep Aoki from going after other families.
• Improbable Aiming Skills: He shoots Ichiban with a precise shot that hits him close enough to the heart to trick the Omi executives into thinking the shot killed him, while still giving him a fighting chance to pull through with medical attention.
• Informed Ability: Supposedly a deadly assassin and martial artist, those days are long behind him and aside from shooting Ichiban he's never seen getting his hands dirty. Rectified somewhat in Infinite Wealth where a flashback shows just how deadly he was when going up against his former Yakuza family.
• Ink-Suit Actor: Modeled after his Japanese voice actor, Kiichi Nakai.
• Like a Son to Me: He tells Ichiban that he sees him as a son and clearly treats him with fatherly affection to the point that he writes a letter to him while he's in prison about how a parent will always miss their child. In spite of this, he still ends up using him as a pawn in his machinations against Aoki, something he feels deep shame over. It turns out that Ichi actually is his son, with the heavy implication that Arakawa figured it out long ago.
• Locked Out of the Loop:
  • Played With in that while Sawashiro never told him about the truth of Ichiban and Masato, it's heavily implied that Arakawa figured out the truth himself and was inches away from outright confessing it in his final meeting with Ichiban.
  • Sawashiro deliberately kept the fact that Akane survived a secret from Arakawa in order to keep Ichiban and Masato being Switched at Birth a secret as well as Akane wanting to keep her past behind her.
• The Lost Lenore: He was in love with a woman named Akane. She disappeared and was later presumed to be killed when his boss at the time found out about their relationship, due to Arakawa being in an Arranged Marriage with a woman his boss had chosen. Infinite Wealth reveals that Akane was alive but Sawashiro kept it a secret for both his and Akane's (who had already started a new life in Hawaii) sake.
• Luke, I Am Your Father: It's Ichiban who is his biological son, but due to a twist of fate, he mixed Ichiban up with Jo Sawashiro's child, who also happened to be placed in a locker. That infant would later become Masato. It's implied in his final appearance that he's figured this out himself but he ultimately backs out of telling Ichiban himself.
• Manly Tears: Arakawa sheds tears when he realizes that, Ichiban who went through hell and back due to his machinations still saw him as a boss worthy of following, and still wanted to follow him as a subordinate during their final meeting.
• The Mole: He rose to the top of the Omi Alliance by being a mole and selling out information about the Tojo clan to the police and to the Omi Alliance. It's later revealed he did this due to Masato (who was the governer Ryo Aiko at the time) forcing him to, and also did so while collaborating with the heads of the Tojo and Omi, as part of a plan to dissolve the Yakuza.
• Names to Run Away from Really Fast: Arakawa the Assassin. Though he is much nicer than he initially presents himself as.
• One-Man Army: He's called "Arakawa the Assassin" due to being a fearsome and brutal killer in his youth. Infinite Wealth shows a flashback of him taking down an entire Yakuza family and killing their patriarch by himself.
• Papa Wolf: Was willing to fight off yakuza that were gunning for him and punch a hole in a locker just to save his infant son.
• Reasonable Authority Figure: He's pretty forgiving towards Ichiban's repeated screw-ups when it comes to money collecting, while also telling Ichiban to try to work with Sawashiro better despite their repeated antagonism towards each other. He even incorporates Ichiban's love of RPG's when describing how to get on Sawashiro's good side better.
• Red Baron: His Yakuza nom de guerre is Arakawa the Assassin. While he mellowed out by the start of the story he is implied to have wiped out his whole family after they killed Akane and used a hobo camp to dispose of bodies monthly. "Infinite Wealth" shows how he buried the Hikawa family in a bloody fashion.
• Retired Badass: He was once a fearsome yakuza hitman known as "Arakawa the Assassin", but by the year 2000, he became content to lead a low-ranking family whose worst crimes were roughing up debtors. As acting captain of the Omi Alliance in 2019, his role is mostly administrative, although he's shown to be quite skilled with a gun.
• Retirony: He's killed shortly after informing Ichiban that he's no longer part of the yakuza following the dissolution of the Tojo Clan and Omi Alliance. More tragically, it was also after he accepted Ichiban back in as his subordinate at Ichiban's request.
• Roaring Rampage of Revenge: He killed the entire Hikawa family (his former Yakuza family) in revenge for them killing Akane. A flashback in Infinite Wealth shows the act of him doing this, not the least of which included the Cold-Blooded Torture of the Hikawa Patriarch himself. This is the act that got him known as "Arakawa the Assassin".
• Scars Are Forever: He's had the scar in his cheek ever since he was a child, thanks to his mother smacking him in the face.
• Shared Family Quirks: The flashback to Masumi's Roaring Rampage of Revenge and the fighting performance of his two biological sons shows that all three of them are decent in hand-to-hand fighting, but truly excel with a weapon in hand, able to take on multiple foes even when vastly outnumbered. Whilst Masumi and Ebina show a tendency towards actual blades like Katanas, Tantos and Machetes, with their combat being appropriately grim and bloody, Ichiban's weapon is a bat wrapped in barbed wire that he imagines is akin to a Hero's sword. All three also show a tendency to become incredibly dangerously angry if they suffer a personal loss of a loved one or have them in imminent danger, verging on The Berserker. Whilst Kiryu is around to help knock some sense into Ichiban before he fully flies off the rails, Masumi and Ebina's destructive rampages get played out in full, to their self-detriment in the end (albeit Ebina is fully accepting of this).
• Shoot the Dog: As it turns out, him shooting Ichiban was more akin to this as Ichiban was ultimately part of his plan to help topple Masato/Aoki. It's made very clear that he felt legitimately guilty about it and Ichiban's unwavering loyalty in spite of being his Unwitting Pawn moves him to tears.
• Slasher Smile: Fittingly for a man who used to be known as "Arakawa the Assassin", flashbacks in Infinite Wealth shows him in his younger days, splattered in blood and grinning evilly.
• Silver Fox: He claims that going silver has only made him a bigger hit with the ladies.
• Sins of the Father: Infinite Wealth reveals that his One-Man Army massacre of the Hikawa family had dire consequences down the line, as he'd unknowingly impregnated the patriarch's daughter just prior to the events, resulting in his child being raised by her in squalor without a support network thanks to his actions, and nursing a massive grudge against him and the Yakuza who should have taken care of his mother in the fallout. His death and the dissolution of the major Yakuza clans in Like A Dragon deprived his son of the target of his vengeance, motivating him to become a Yakuza himself in order to reform the criminal underworld under one banner and lure them into a massive death trap, out of the belief that it was the only suitable punishment for their crimes and spite against Arakawa's dying wishes that the Yakuza be reformed into society.
• Spanner in the Works: Him shooting Ichiban after his release from prison would only be the beginning in his plan to get him to the Ijin Three as well as dissolve the Tojo Clan and Omi Alliance, with the intent to throw a major wrench in Aoki's plans.
• Star-Crossed Lovers: He was in an Arranged Marriage with a woman his boss at the time had chosen, but he fell in love with and pursued a secret relationship with Akane. When his boss found out, he ordered his men to kill Akane.
• Thou Shalt Not Kill: Pointedly averted. Apart from being known as "Arakawa the Assassin", the flashback of his assault on the Hikawa family in Infinite Wealth shows him clearly killing the mooks on his way to the patriarch, unlike when Kiryu and Majima did similar assaults. He also tortures said patriarch by shooting each individual finger with a handgun. Not that said patriarch didn't deserve it, of course.
• Unwitting Instigator of Doom: Infinite Wealth reveals that him walking out of the arranged marriage the Hikawa family patriarch put him in and then dismantling the Hikawa family after they tried to kill Akane had much more disastrous consequences down the line. In one final desperate bid to convince him to stay with her, his fiancée Hikawa Yuriko ended up having sex with him, which ultimately did not sway him away from pursuing Akane. Unbeknownst to Arakawa (as he apparently never thought to find out what became of Yuriko after his rampage), that session of sex would actually produce a child, but with the Hikawa family completely destroyed before the pregnancy truly became known, there was no one left to help Arakawa's fiancée raise their child, and she would die while raising him in squalor. That child would grow up to become Masataka Ebina, who nursed such an intense grudge against Arakawa and the yakuza as a whole for abandoning his mother that he would go on to undermine the yakuza's attempts to reform and plot their outright extermination.
• Walking Spoiler: It's pretty difficult to talk about Arakawa considering he's a major player in the last third of Y:LAD.
• Younger Than They Look: During the flashback scene where Arakawa tried to take his son in the locker, he looks like he's in his late 20s when he's actually 18 years old.
• You Have Outlived Your Usefulness: Subverted. He shoots Ichiban after he served eighteen years in prison, but it's later revealed that he never intended to kill Ichiban and that he instead intended on using him as a major Spanner in the Works in his plan to dissolve the Omi Alliance and Tojo Clan, as well as lead him to the Ijin Three in Yokohama, with the counterfeit bill that he places on him serving as a message to Hoshino, who has previous connections to Arakawa.
• Yubitsume:
  • When a young Ichiban got in trouble with a Yakuza clan and namedropped Arakawa out of desperation, Arakawa himself came by and saved him by cutting off his own finger, which he now covers up with a black glove.
  • He gave a variation to the Hikawa family patriarch by shooting off his fingers individually with a pistol.

Jo Sawashiro

Voiced by: Shinichi Tsutsumi (Japanese), Brian Bloom (English)^{Other Languages} Zhang Xin (Chinese)

Jo Sawashiro in the year 2019

^{click here to see Jo Sawashiro in the year 2000}

A wakagashira and a martial artist with a sense of duty and humanity towards his boss Arakawa, who stresses the importance of money. He would beat Ichiban Kasuga down with his fists as a daily occurrence, as he was unable to earn money. He single-handedly takes on the role of the “whip” within the Arakawa Family. He hated Ichiban Kasuga back in the day, and after 18 years, that hatred has not changed. Since Arakawa became a substitute wakagashira of the Omi Alliance, he has the same authority as an Omi Alliance executive directly reporting to the boss.

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• Absurdly Youthful Father: He beats Masumi by being 15 when he fathered Masato.
• Adaptational Attractiveness: Ryu Ga Gotoku Online Sawashiro looks significantly more imposing and threatening than the Sawashiro of Like a Dragon, who instead looks more like an Old Master with decades of martial arts experience, but is nevertheless still a badass in his own right.
• Age Lift: In Ryu Ga Gotoku Online, he was significantly younger, being roughly closer in age to Ichiban. In Like a Dragon, due to being modeled after Shinichi Tsutsumi, he's much older, being in his mid 50's (late 30's to early 40's in 2000) in 2019.
• Alas, Poor Villain: After turning himself to the police in order to hope for the better future, he ends up in jail for life and became depressed presumably from his lingering guilt due to his life as a criminal and the death of his son.
• Always Someone Better: Upon seeing Sawashiro's Cane Fu in his second fight, Nanba notes that Sawashiro makes him look like an amateur in comparison.
• Asshole Victim: He gets brutally tortured and displayed by Ebina to Kiryu’s party in the second game. While Nanba calls him a bastard for it, Ebina points out that Sawashiro has done the exact same thing to numerous others over the decades and that he really had it coming. An eye for an eye, so he says.
• The Atoner: He joined Arakawa's family so that he could be close to Masato, his biological son, whose inability to walk was indirectly caused by Sawashiro abandoning him after he was born. In addition, he decided to turn himself in in order to make up for his crimes and ensure that Masato will stay safe, while also knowing that Masato would have him executed either way for disobeying orders and having tried to foil his own plans. It would later become All for Nothing since the latter dies. This continues in Infinite Wealth with him out of prison thanks to Ebina; he helps to arrange for Ichiban to meet with his mother, no strings attached, which doesn't go as planned due to the Seiryu and Palekana's hunt for Akane and Lani, and assists Kiryu's party by informing him of Ebina's duplicity after he's able to slip his leash. He gets brutally tortured by the Seiryu and used as bait for Kiryu for his troubles.

• Badass Bookworm: He's the family's bookkeeper and a skilled martial artist.
• Badass in a Nice Suit: Sawashiro is never seen without his crocodile-skin suit, and he pulls some rather crazy moves in his fights.
• Bad Boss: He's shown to be far less tolerant of Ichiban's inability to collect money, especially since he tried to cover it up with money hey got from Masato. He was outright willing to cut off Ichiban's finger even for a small blunder, and would have succeeded if not for Masumi coming in at the right time to interfere. He's so angry about it that he lights a cigarette solely to throw it at Ichiban too. Although as can be inferred all of this is mostly aimed at Ichiban. With the revelation of Masato being Jo's biological son, it's likely that he reacted so violently because he assumed Ichiban had troubled Masato to get the money.
• Batman Gambit:
  • In Like A Dragon, it so happens it was Sawashiro himself who tipped off the Geomijul to the assault on Seiryu clan's headquarters, thus prompting Ichiban and co. to show up and stop him since he couldn't defy Aoki's order on Hoshino's life. Naturally, Ichiban did exactly that.
  • In Infinite Wealth, it's implied after his boss fight that he took a dive in order to arrange with Kiryu on the spot someway to get him out from under Ebina's watch. Fittingly after explaining the concept of the panopticon to the party as a veiled metaphor for his situation.
• Berserk Button:
  • Jo has little patience for those he judge weak or passive in the yakuza world. He is ready to cut Ichiban's finger for paying him with money he assumed Ichiban begged Masato for and murders a clan patriarch by gouging his eye when he tries pulling the senpai card on Jo when Jo is a professional killer while the patriarch a Yes-Man.
    Jo: Guys like you are all bark and no balls when it's war time. That's the kind of yakuza I can't fucking stand!
  • In the prologue, when Ichiban announced that he did everything but collect money for the clan, Sawashiro is clearly frustrated but keeps calm. It's only when he believes that Ichiban borrowed money from Masato that he truly loses his temper, which serves as foreshadowing to the two's relationship.
• Cane Fu:
  • His second boss fight has phases where he uses a cane to fight. Nanba explicitly calls it out as a western style, likely Canne de Combat.
  • When facing Kiryu in Infinite Wealth, even after an entire crate of melee weapons is destroyed and its contents spill out, he chooses to arm himself with a random cane that was in the pile. Although not before grabbing a combat knife and throwing it at Kiryu first.
• Co-Dragons: He's this to Masato alongside Ishioda, representing the Tojo side Masato has a hold over due to Sawashiro's Undying Loyalty towards Masato. Masato attempts to dispose of him after Sawashiro defies him by refusing to kill Arakawa.
• Combat Pragmatist: He always ends up using a weapon of some sort in both of the fights against him. In his first, he starts out unarmed before deciding to use a broken glass piece as a knife, while in the second he starts off with a katana, swapping to a cane when the sword gets broken before eventually fighting with both the broken cane and the katana's broken blade. During his fight in Infinite Wealth he has a Stance System that lets him use a cane, a pair of knives, a katana, and his unarmed style outside of phase changes.
• Conflicting Loyalty: He's caught between Arakawa and Masato. Though Arakawa is his boss, he mostly serves Masato in secret. It comes to a head when Masato orders him to kill Arakawa, with him realizing that he cannot go through with killing his boss. Disobeying Masato's orders for the first time coupled with Arakawa getting killed anyways causes him to suffer Sanity Slippage.
• Conspicuous Gloves: He's not always wearing them during Like a Dragon, but Ichiban perceives him in combat with them. Although they could be real, as he's shown handling a glass shard shiv and the blade of a katana as weapons without much issue.
• Consummate Professional: As bookkeeper of the clan, he takes his duties quite seriously. Aside from the fact that he doesn't give days off, he treats Ichiban as incompetent due to his unwillingness to perform shakedowns (especially when he tried to make it up with money he got from Masato).
• Dark and Troubled Past: When he was young, he had a really rough life. Having to withstand his abusive father and the fact that he had a baby with his girlfriend when he was 15 years old really explains how he became like this.
• Dark Secret: Was the only person in the Arakawa Family who knew of the Switched at Birth incident between his and Masumi's sons, having personally witnessed Masumi punching open the exact locker he locked his son in to retrieve him, and then watching a soapland manager pull out another baby from the open locker right next to it just moments later, piecing the whole situation together from there. It was the actual main reason he joined the Arakawa Family, to keep an eye on his actual son Masato, whilst keeping both Masumi and Masato in the dark about it.
• Despair Event Horizon:
  • After turning himself to the police and going to jail for life, he is shown to be depressed presumably due to hearing about Masato's, his real son’s, death.
  • Infinite Wealth shows that this was actually much earlier, when he discovered Hoshino's corpse and realized that Masato never cared about him at all, leaving Sawashiro in such an apathetic state that he takes the blame for the kill.
• Disappointed in You: While he’s always angry in the intro whenever Ichiban doesn’t meet his expectations he takes on a more disappointed tone when Ichiban is too late to stop him from killing Hoshino. Since it’s revealed that he leaked information hoping Ichiban would stop him it’s not hard to infer that he hoped Ichiban would shape up and derail Aoki’s plan. Ichiban even states afterwards that Sawashiro always asked too much from him.
  • Infinite Wealth changes the scene by showing the audience what happened right before that. He had been framed for the murder and had given up on everything. He wasn't actually disappointed in Ichiban, he was disappointed in himself
• Dissonant Serenity: He becomes unnervingly calm and composed as he undergoes his Villainous Breakdown, shown both in the scene where he gouges the eye out of a Tojo patriarch and where he meets with Ichiban after killing Hoshino.
• The Dragon: In 2019, he serves as Ryo Aoki's personal hatchetman who does most of his dirty work at least until he refused to kill Arakawa, upon which Aoki treats him as disposable and proceeds to replace him with Tendo.
• Dual Wielding: After Ichiban breaks his cane, he is pushed back near a wall where half of his katana's broken blade landed on. He pulls it out and uses the blade in conjunction with the broken cane (which luckily for him, was broken in away that it's basically a sharp stick now).
• Expository Hairstyle Change: At the end of the game he loses the neat, slicked back hair and returns to the hairstyle he had as a teenager/young adult to represent him crossing the Despair Event Horizon after being imprisoned and both Arakawas dying. It makes him look less like a Yakuza boss and more like a tired old man. Infinite Wealth shows he has it slicked back again, but is more of an informant giving Ichiban a request.
• Even Evil Has Loved Ones: He puts Ichiban through a lot of shit but he genuinely cares about his son Masato a.k.a Ryo Aoki. Then there's also his love and respect for his patriarch, whom he's still infallibly loyal to despite everything that has happened throughout the course of the game. Tellingly, the one time Sawashiro's defied a direct order from the former was when he was told to murder the latter.
• Even Evil Has Standards: Even as a loyal father, he realises his son Masato/Aoki has gone too far in tasking him to murder Masumi, being the only demand he outright refused to execute. Even when given a second chance for forgiveness from his son by being tasked to kill Hoshino, he complies, but not before leaking info of the plan in the hopes that Ichiban stopping him would provide him an excuse for failing to complete his order. Unfortunately his plan didn't go as he'd hoped, as not only is Hoshino dead by the time Ichiban's party arrives to his office, as revealed in Infinite Wealth he was dead before Sawashiro arrived himself.
• Evil Counterpart: To Ichiban of all people once the full extent of his backstory is revealed. They both started off as young punks who only live to cause trouble until they joined the Arakawa Family, with Sawashiro's flashback of his past is even similarly framed to that of Ichiban's. They are both loyal to the Arakawas but stand on opposing sides. As for their loyalty to Masato, the difference is that while Sawashiro is willing to obey Masato's orders regardless to a fault, Ichiban expresses his love and loyalty by opposing Masato's goals while still believing he could be redeemed. Both of them even have a similar tattoo (at least in the mobile game) — the dragonfish — which symbolizes their shared goals even if they happen to go different ways to accomplish it.
• Eye Scream:
  • Jo, after snapping from Arakawa's death, kills a man by literally gouging his right eye with his thumb.
  • He ends up on the receiving end of this by Ebina in Infinite Wealth, who lampshades how ironic it is considering what he did in the last game.
• Fate Worse than Death: By the end of the game, he gets life in prison where he gets to spend the rest of his existence stewing on his actions as well as the knowledge that everyone he cared about is dead. Though the beginning of Infinite Wealth reveals he managed to get out thanks to Ebina getting a lawyer to get a retrial. Unfortunately for Sawashiro, he ends up being yet another pawn of Ebina's, and suffers an even worse fate than where he was at the end of Like a Dragon - brutally and remorselessly tortured with one of his eyes gouged out, alive but possibly permanently crippled and left only with his myriad of regrets.
• The Gloves Come Off: As the first real boss of the game, Ichiban defeats him singlehandedly. One may assume, as Adachi did, that he's not particularly strong, but Ichiban says he is far more dangerous when he fights seriously with a proper weapon. Sawashiro quickly proves him right. Although amusingly, it's averted literally as he wears gloves in his boss fights.
• Graceful Loser: After being beaten by Ichiban and his party and revealing the truth of Masato and Ichiban's parentage, he calmly accepts being taken into police custody. Even moreso when it’s revealed by Joon-Gi Han that he intentionally leaked information that he was going to kill Hoshino in the hopes Ichiban could stop him
• Heel–Face Turn: After serving as a major antagonistic force during Like a Dragon, Infinite Wealth sees him act as The Mole in Ebina's Seiryu faction due to his desire to atone and ensure Masumi's dream is fulfilled.
• Hero Killer: He kills Hoshino under Masato's orders. Infinite Wealth reveals that Sawashiro didn't commit the deed and Masato sent another Assassin beforehand to do it .
• Improvised Weapon: Due to Ichiban intruding into the Omi meeting and catching him unprepared, his first fight with him is initially bare-handed until he breaks a large pane of glass with a dodged punch and fashions a Sinister Shiv out of a suitably large piece to fight with. Ichiban deconstructs this just prior to his second fight, noting that he got lucky in taking down Sawashiro solo because he didn't have a proper weapon and was effectively a Handicapped Badass, stating that the Captain tends to get "amped up" when he's holding one. Indeed, Sawashiro is capable of a devastating stab wound and emits a Battle Aura when he's holding the glass, and with a proper medium-length weapon in hand (either a sword or a Cane) he proves capable of being a Climax Boss agaisnt Ichiban's entire party at once.
• Ink-Suit Actor: Modeled after his voice actor.
• Jerkass: He's incredibly belligerent towards Ichiban, beating him up regularly for perceived infractions. Years later he absolutely relishes any opportunity he gets to murder Ichiban with his bare hands.
• Jerkass Has a Point: Not enough to warrant the kind of abuse he dishes out toward Ichiban specifically, but Sawashiro isn't exactly wrong to be upset at Ichiban's inability to earn money, considering how collecting money is necessary to keeping a family running. Arakawa notes that Sawashiro's ability to crack the whip is part of what makes him valuable to the family.
• Kick Them While They Are Down: In his second boss fight when he uses his cane, should he knock you down, there will be a cutscene where he jabs his downed opponent with the other end of the cane.
• Laughing Mad: Makes a downplayed version once he is defeated the second time by Ichiban before he confesses the truth.
• Leitmotif:
  • "Brutality", which is used in the second fight against him. Gets remixed into Brutality -Rebuild- for his fight in Infinite Wealth.
  • For his Ryu Ga Gotoku Online incarnation, "God Complex" from Fist of the North Star: Lost Paradise is reused for the Final Boss fight against him at the end of the main story.
• Luke, I Am Your Father: Masato Arakawa is actually his son. Due to a Contrived Coincidence in which Ichiban and Masato happened to be put into lockers side-by-side, Arakawa mistook Sawashiro's son for his own.
• Mirror Character: Of Ichiban, though it’s not apparent till later. They were both street punks who joined Arakawa’s family out of gratitude, Ichiban for saving his life at the cost of Arakawa’s pinky and Sawashiro for saving and raising Masato in addition to his own guilt. Their flashbacks are even framed similarly with both the teenage Ichiban and Sawashiro walking with similar poses, attire, appearance, and Vocal Dissonance. They even share a tattoo design, the dragonfish. On a non-spoilery note, they both also improve dramatically in combat once they get their hands on a weapon.
  • His second boss fight makes him out to be a match for the game's RPG mechanics, and his three phases are all distinct in ways resembling different parts of the Job System; He has area-of-effect Blade-element attacks that cause bleeding and are dependent on positioning in his first phase like the Bodyguard, he can use a follow-up attack on party members who are knocked down in his second phase, and his third phase introduces both healing abilities akin to those used by the Bartender and Hero, and a Counter-Attack like the one that the Musician job uses.
• Multi-Melee Master: He's skilled in multiple forms of Martial Combat. Specifically, he's skilled in hand-to-hand, knife fighting, Iaijutsu, dual wielding, and, as implied by Nanba's observations about his skill with a cane, Bartitsu (a British Martial Art that combines weapons combat with a cane or umbrella, being a Combat Pragmatist with Pocket Squares, and Good Old Fisticuffs).
• My Master, Right or Wrong: His atonement to Masato, for having been a terrible father, was to serve and follow all his orders no matter how morally ambiguous they are, whether be it taking the rep for his son killing a yakuza, or even supporting the latter after he has become a power-hungry, corrupt governor.
• Not Me This Time:
  • Infinite Wealth reveals that he didn't kill Hoshino. Instead, Aoki knew that Sawashiro was having second thoughts and so sent another assassin ahead of time to do the deed and pin it on him.
  • To a lesser extent, despite the heroes' initial suspicions of him being part of The Conspiracy with the Seiryu clan (with Ichiban correctly believing otherwise), he was willing to admit at the first opportunity that Ebina among others aren't giving him much of a choice, and would rather see their plans foiled to honor Arakawa's memory.
• Old Master: Even in his late 50s he's still a deadly martial artist and weapon master.
• O.O.C. Is Serious Business: In Infinite Wealth, Ichiban realizes how serious he is about wanting him to see Akane because he bows to him and pleads, something he openly tells the party later is something Sawashiro would never do to him unless he meant it.
• Papa Wolf: He does what he can for Masato, even as it drives him crazy.
• Parental Abandonment: He left his child behind in a locker because he and his girlfriend felt they were unprepared to be parents and decided their son would be better off either being found and raised by someone else or be left for dead (and given that they actually locked the locker it was a clear sign they actually preferred the latter). While he was surprised and felt relieved that his baby was saved and taken away by a yakuza seemingly out of nowhere, he then found out the consequences of his actions when he chanced upon a young Masato stuck in a wheelchair years later, due to almost dying from hypothermia from being in the cold locker for too long.
• Pet the Dog: Infinite Wealth reveals that he originally planned to kill Akane to keep Masato’s true heritage a secret. However, upon seeing her new family, Sawashiro has enough sympathy to not go through with it. And even though part of the reason he follows through with Akane’s request was due to his own selfishness, he still decides to help her live in secret and keeps contact with her to the point of keeping her up to date on Ichiban.
• The Resenter: Much of his hatred for Ichiban makes sense upon The Reveal, since he likely resented him for coming out of the incident that permanently crippled his own son without any problems.
• Secret-Keeper: In Infinite Wealth, he reveals that he's kept the fact that Akane was alive a secret from Arakawa due to the fact that the two meeting up might potentially reveal the truth behind Masato and Ichiban's circumstances as well as Akane wanting to leave her past behind her.
• Sinister Shiv: When first fighting Ichiban, he prompts to take an intimidatingly large glass shard as a weapon. His second boss fight has him use more conventional weapons (barring Cane Fu), although the last stretch has him dual wield his broken cane and the other half of his broken katana (both are sorta shivs depending on how you look at it).
• Suicide Mission: As punishment for refusing to assassinate Arakawa, Sawashiro is forced to kill Hoshino by Aoki since Aoki assumed he'd end up dead no matter whether or not he succeeded. Knowing that Sawashiro had second thoughts, he also hired another assassin to kill Hoshino beforehand to pin it on him. However, Aoki didn't plan on Sawashiro actually turning himself into the cops, causing him to get an assassin to take him out.
• Tattooed Crook: Though he doesn't reveal his tattoo in Like a Dragon, Online reveals that he has a tattoo of a "dragonfish", the in-between stage of a koi's evolution into a dragon. It represents Sawashiro's Undying Loyalty to Masumi Arakawa, the dragon that Sawashiro aspires to live up to. However, since that game is an Alternate Universe it's unclear how much that applies to the one in the mainline series.
• Teens Are Monsters: As a 15 year old, he thought little of locking his and his then-girlfriend's newborn son in a locker and just forgetting he ever existed, despite the weather conditions being dangerously cold that night. Though he doesn't exactly become good as an adult, he does at least become empathetic enough to realize just how monstrous of an action that was. He ends up joining the Arakawa Family so he can serve his son in secret in order to correct his callous mistake.
• Terms of Endangerment: He always refers to Ichiban by the nickname ‘Ichi’, like Masumi Arakawa does, but his tone is clearly condescending and with barely restrained contempt. By the time of Infinite Wealth however, it's a lot friendlier in tone.
• Took a Level in Kindness: The events of Like a Dragon and his subsequent prison sentence mellow him out significantly, to the point that he treats Ichiban as an equal rather than a subordinate or an inferior. He still calls Ichi a dumbass, but it's more out of endearment than any sort of malice. Even then, he does tell Kiryu that if Ichi ever attempted to backtalk him he'd slit his throat.
• Tragic Villain: Despite everything, it's hard not to feel sorry for the guy, since his entire motivation for working for Aoki is that Aoki is actually his son, and his fate for trying to be a good father indirectly is life in jail, and his son being killed.
• Tranquil Fury: When Jo is pissed, he doesn't lash out. Instead, he will calmly show his rage in a most terrifying way possible.
• Uncertain Doom: The last we see of Sawashiro in "Infinite Wealth" has him weakened, bloodied, and missing an eye as a result of Ebina's handiwork. He almost seems to be dead throughout the climactic final fight, but barely wakes up after it ends to praise Kiryu's strength. However, we don't see what happens to him after the finale and it isn't outright mentioned by the heroes where he is now, with only a vague implication that he might still be alive since Ebina underestimated how strong Sawashiro is. It's unknown whether he made a full recovery sans the eye, is left permanently crippled and/or in a coma, or did end up eventually dying in the aftermath of Ebina's torture.
• Undying Loyalty: Not to Arakawa but rather Masato. Makes sense considering Masato is actually his biological son. Needless to say, he's in a bad spot psychologically after he disobeys Masato's order to kill Arakawa, especially after Arakawa gets killed anyways. Infinite Wealth makes it even worse by revealing that Masato/Aoki never gave a shit about him at all, even going so far as to frame him for an assassination he was having second thoughts about, making his loyalty to his son All for Nothing.
• Ungrateful Bastard: Ichiban spent 18 years in prison to cover up his shooting of another yakuza and yet the first thing he does upon seeing him again is sneer and ask if he came looking for a handout as well as saying that he finally gets the chance to fulfill his lifelong dream of beating him to death. Even finding out that it was Masato who did it doesn’t change this since he continues to look down on him despite Ichiban taking the heat for his son, who was only found by Masumi because Ichiban was hidden in the same place.
• Vocal Dissonance: Just like Ichiban, flashbacks to him as a teenager in the English Dub portray him as having the same deep, gravelly voice he has as an adult. This and their similar appearance and style leads to the idea that they’re not that different.
• Villain: Exit, Stage Left: Attempted. After telling Ichiban his true origins he tries to leave only for Joon-Gi Han and Zhao to bluntly tell him he can’t just walk after killing someone like Hoshino. Then he essentially shrugs his shoulders and tells them to do what they want with him.
• Villainous Breakdown: Arakawa's death really puts his mind in a bad spot.
• Walking Spoiler: His past ties heavily into the history of not only the Arakawas, but also Ichiban's as well.
• Warm-Up Boss: He's the first actual boss fight in the game, and the one who introduces unique enemy auras. Unlike a lot of examples, however, he's fought again much later on and is significantly tougher.
• Willfully Weak: In his first encounter, he acts as a Warm-Up Boss that Ichiban fights solo. As the second fight with him can attest, he held back a lot the first time around. Ichiban even comments he was either lucky Sawashiro didn't get his hand on a decent weapon or the Captain wasn't trying.
• The Worf Effect: Despite having put up a pretty hard fight against Ichiban and his crew in 'Like A Dragon, when he's fought in Infinite Wealth, while the other strongest fighters of the Seiryu Clan are being handled by Nanba, Saeko, Zhao, and Seonhee, Kiryu single-handedly defeats Sawashiro, something that shocks the other party members considering how hard they struggled against him before. Notably, in action sequences, while Ichiban made use of the right opportunity to break Sawashiro's weapons through raw strength instead of skill, which he makes clear Sawashiro is superior to him at, Kiryu is the better fighter by fending off all of Sawashiro's cane attacks without breaking a sweat before wrestling him down to submission. Even while his body had been ravaged by cancer, Kiryu is still a legend of Japan's underworld. Though it's left vague whether Sawashiro intentionally took a dive in the fight, or simply took advantage of the result to get out from under Ebina's eye.
• Wrecked Weapon: Happens about twice in his second boss fight. First he pulls out a katana displayed on the wall, but it gets broken in half when Ichiban uses a trophy to block a strike. Then he takes out a cane which is also destroyed when Ichiban delivers a pretty strong kick (although broken in a way that basically gives him a sharp stick). These setbacks don't deter him in the slightest however, as he uses the broken cane and the other half of his katan to fight.

Mitsuo Yasumura

Voiced by: Satoshi Tsuruoka (Japanese), SungWon Cho (English)

Mitsuo Yasumura in the year 2019.

^{click here to see Mitsuo Yasumura in the year 2000.}

Also known by the nickname Mitsu. During Ichiban Kasuga’s wakashu days in the Arakawa Family of the Tojo Clan, Yasumura was considered his only brother and the two shared a strong bond. He continues to serve Masumi Arakawa, even after the Arakawa Family switched from the Tojo Clan to the Omi Alliance.

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• Badass in a Nice Suit: Mtsuo starts off wearing rather punk-ish clothes but after the Arakawa Family defects to the Omi Alliance he wears a spiffy yakuza suit as per usual.
• Big Damn Heroes: Saves Zhao off-screen as Ichiban and his friends fend off against Mabuchi, Ishioda, and their respective entourages.
• The Bus Came Back: In Chapters 10 through 12, Mitsuo returned and became more significant to the story as he worked again with Ichiban and his crew. He's also seen paying his respects to both Arakawas during the funeral at the very end alongside Daigo, Watase, Majima, and Saejima, in addition to Nanba and Saeko being present.
• Face of a Thug: He's got the mullet of one, but he doesn't seem to mind too much in giving back the money that Ushio scammed off of those teenagers in the prologue.
• The Mole: He serves as one for Ichiban when they infiltrate the Omi Alliance HQ.
• Neighborhood-Friendly Gangsters: Implied. While he was reluctant in doing so initially, he eventually managed to find all of the teenagers that Ushio had scammed and gave them their money back with no strings attached.
• Not So Above It All: While he chastises Ichiban for thinking in Dragon Quest terms, that doesn't stop him from thinking about actually trying the games for himself.
• Offscreen Moment of Awesome: Had to pull a lot of stops to save Zhao before the Omi could get to him.
• Put on a Bus: Mitsuo appears briefly in the intro parts of the story as a sidekick for Ichiban but isn't seen for a while after the time skip.
• Undying Loyalty: To both Ichiban and the Arakawa family, having been with them as far back as 2000 and he didn't have any qualms about helping Ichiban and his friends break into the Omi Alliance HQ.

Masato Arakawa

Voiced by: Kosuke Toriumi (Japanese), Will Yun Lee (English)

Masumi's son. While not officially affiliated with the yakuza, Masato is nevertheless adored by Ichiban Kasuga. He has to use a wheelchair because he suffered from hypothermia right after his birth. In his daily life, he relies on Ichiban Kasuga to act as a kind of manservant, but he also has great trust in the Arakawa Family wakagashira Jo Sawashiro.

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• Beard of Sorrow: He's visibly quite tired and miserable when we see him, an appearance that's only heightened by his thin yet unkempt beard.
• Chick Magnet: He's shown to be quite popular with the hostesses. Unfortunately, his actual girlfriend just uses him for his money.
• Didn't Think This Through: He's so caught up in the ability to walk that he underestimates how long he's able to do so with the ephedrine. A thug accosts him eventually, and in his desperation to get away Masato shoots him dead, sparking a chain of events that lead to Ichiban taking the fall for him and Masumi.
• Disability as an Excuse for Jerkassery: Due to spending most of his life in a wheelchair and years of self loathing, he was never given a proper way to vent his frustration besides the Yakuza since his father's status made it difficult for him to make connections outside of the Yakuza. This means that despite everything Ichiban did for him as his caretaker, all he did in return was hurl insults and admits during his Villainous Breakdown that he always hated him for reminding him too much of his father.
• Disabled Means Helpless: A case where he actually believes it himself. He deeply resents being confined to a wheelchair and is willing to resort to a potentially dangerous drug just to give himself the ability to walk for a short time.
• Foreshadowing: The imported ephedrine injector he used to stave off his disability prior to the Time Skip was initially built up as just a random example of the leaps and bounds in medical science that the United States had made ahead of Japan. Three guesses which country Masato then fled to to have his identity changed and disability cured later on, and the first two don't count.
• Ironic Name: The kanji for "Masa" means "true" and he spends most of the game under a fake identity.
• Lonely Rich Kid: He's incredibly wealthy, but he's also a very lonely individual outside of his friendship with Ichiban (whom he sees as an idiotic bootlicker that his father stuck him with rather than a friend). This is only hammered home when he finds out his girlfriend was actually just using him for his money and actually mistrusted him because of his spending habits.
• Mafia Princess: He's the son of a Yakuza boss, which while brings him wealth also means he grew up with the stigma of being associated with criminals and being targeted by Gold Diggers. In fact, he needed to change his name entirely in order to even get the surgery that let him walk.
• Posthumous Character: By the time Ichiban gets out of jail, Masato is apparently dead. If by dead you mean on paper. He's taken up the identity of Ryo Aoki in the past eighteen years, having gotten surgery in America to finally walk of his own volition.
• Throwing Off the Disability: He uses a foreign-produced ephedrine to stimulate his nerves, giving him the ability to walk temporarily.
• Vitriolic Best Buds: A one-sided variant in that while Ichiban is legitimately devoted to him (to the point that he always refers to him as "Young Master"), Masato largely treated him as a lackey he's forced to put up with. Near the end of the game, when undergoing a Villainous Breakdown, he even fully admits that he always hated Ichiban since he reminded him too much of his father. Nonetheless, it is ultimately Ichiban's pleadings that finally get through to him and his final words are to ask him to never give up on life and lament how it would have been nice to start life again at his side.
• Younger Than They Look: He's the same age as Ichiban, meaning he would have been 23-24 during his appearance in the prologue. His Beard of Sorrow as well as his haggard, disheveled appearance — likely from just not caring about how he looks — makes him look much older. He actually looks younger as Ryo Aoki after cleaning himself up.

The Seiryu Clan

The Seiryu Clan, one of the "Ijin Three", is the single greatest yakuza organization in Yokohama. Chairman Ryuhei Hoshino, an old-fashioned and genuine yakuza, has controlled the underworld of Yokohama since long ago.

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Ryuhei Hoshino

Voiced by: Tetsuo Kanao (Japanese), JB Blanc (English)

The chairman of the Yokohama Seiryu Clan, the sole yakuza organization in Isezaki Ijincho. He is a genuine yakuza who values duty, humanity, and honor, and is committed to the ways of old-fashioned chivalry. While he is a big-shot who has controlled the underworld of Isezaki Ijincho for many years, he is also a gatekeeper who has continued to protect Ijincho from the invasion of foreign enemies.

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• Big Good: He is the brains of Ijincho's gray zone and the head of the Ijincho Three. Despite the spotty actions of the other members of the Three, he's nothing but helpful to Ichiban when they meet, even if they initially disagree on certain matters. Hoshino later reveals that he's willing to let Ichiban and co. live in spite of their meddling because of Ichiban's fake bill, given to the latter by Masumi Arakawa as an "introductory letter" to Hoshino, who owes a great debt to him. If not for that, the Heroes of Tomorrow would have been all killed by this point.
• The Don: As the Chairman of the Seiryu Clan, he's the biggest crimelord of Ijincho.
• I Owe You My Life: He delivered a set of intentionally defective bank notes to Arakawa as thanks for sparing him, one of which was eventually given to Ichiban when he was transported to Yokohama as a apparent 'introduction letter' to Hoshino, who understood its significance.
• Killed Offscreen: After Ichiban and his gang get word of an assault on the Seiryu Clan HQ, by the time they get there they find Sawashiro mocking them for being late while Hoshino has some brand new bullet holes in his chest.
• A Lighter Shade of Black: He is an old school yakuza who believes that the ends justify the means and that the shady actions they took to keep Ijincho afloat after the war were, and are still, nessessary. While these views are debatable and naturally tend to conflict with Ichiban's; he is still better than the Omi Alliance, Bleach Japan, or the likes of Zheng and Mabuchi who prey on the weak for greed and personal power.
• Mister Big: Is a head shorter than all of his subordinates, but still runs his outfit with unquestioned authority.
• Pragmatic Villainy: Hoshino ends up punishing Totsuka for his euthanasia racket, not because the obscene immorality of it all, but because Totsuka hid the business from the family and his incompetence in allowing Ichiban and his party storm the Seiryu stronghold. Strictly speaking, Hoshino does not approve of Totsuka's actions at all, but while he's grateful for Kasuga for telling him, he is in-fact not happy that he had to find this out from a group of civilians—outsiders to the Seiryu Clan—and considers this a humiliation to himself and his clan.
• Reasonable Authority Figure: While he's a crime lord, he more-or-less takes Ichiban and his group under his wing and does his best to act as their benefactor due to the good they all can do together for Ijincho, especially after the fake-yen scheme has to be abandoned.
• You Killed My Father: He was the one to kill Masumi Arakawa's father, in order to set an example for any other couriers for the counterfeit money. However, Arakawa spares him in part because he was ready to die at his hands for what he had done.

Mamoru Takabe

Voiced by: Taichi Endou (Japanese), Darin De Paul (English)

The sharp number two of the Yokohama Seiryu Clan. He has sworn his allegiance to Ryuhei Hoshino, who has placed great trust in him as his right arm. While he has a calm and collected personality, his hot-bloodedness allows absolutely no tolerance for his enemies.

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• Battle Strip: Defied; When Ichiban tries to challenge Takabe via suit rip, rather than stripping in response all this does is make him drop his guns for a sword.
• Conspicuous Gloves: He wears two of them because he's lost both of his pinkies.
• A Father to His Men: What nearly causes him to start a war with the Yokohama Liumang is the brutal death of two of his men, specifically because of how young they were and how much of their lives they still had ahead of them.
• Guns Akimbo: He carries two pistols as he leads a siege on the Liumang, though he ends up discarding them for a sword after some goading from Ichiban.
• It's Personal: Subtly implied towards Totsuka. When the latter has to commit Yubitsume as recompense for his Sunlight Castle racket he taunts him about tying a string around his finger to make the cut easier and comments that he knows all too well because Totsuka was the reason he lost both of his pinkies.
• Meaningful Name: Mamoru means defending in Japanese and Takabe is really protective of his men. During his boss fight his main ability is to heal his mooks when they are low on health and he is willing to go to on an all out war with the Liumang for killing two of his youngest recruit without asking for Hoshino's permission.
• Not So Stoic: His usual calm personality gives way to Revenge Before Reason when two of his men are brutally gunned down seemingly by members of the Yokohama Liumang. He even breaks down slightly when he recalls how young the two men were.
• Put on a Prison Bus: He's in prison during the events of Infinite Wealth, which is why Ebina's in charge. As it turns out, Ebina himself was responsible for getting him arrested in order to take his place.
• Reasonable Authority Figure: Is friendly enough towards Ichiban and his friends and even agrees to Ichiban's terms to shut down Sunlight Castle, putting an end to Totsuka's schemes in the process.
• Revenge Before Reason: It takes Ichiban and party beating up his entire squad for him to back down from starting a war with the Yokohama Liumang.
  Takabe: I'll take a war, for the sake of Tetsu and Koji. They were two young recruits. Just boys, really. Boys who in the end had more bullets in them than years of life!
• Uncertain Doom: In Infinite Wealth, he's said to be in critical condition after being stabbed in prison offscreen, with no word on whether he'll pull through or not.
• Undying Loyalty: Unlike many in the Seiryu clan, he doesn't turn against or show any doubts about Hoshino after finding out that the Ijin Three cold war was just a farce.
• You Are in Command Now: As the highest ranking surviving officer of the Seiryu Clan by the end, he ends up having to take control after Hoshino's death.
• Yubitsume: Takabe was forced to perform this on both pinkies due to Totsuka, and hides this fact with leather gloves.

Yamato Totsuka

Voiced by: Binbin Takaoka (Japanese), Patrick Seitz (English)

Chairman of the Ryuto Family and Seiryu Clan Chief of HQ, he is the third-in-command of the Seiryu Clan. He ran Sunlight Castle, an extortion scam under the guise of a retirement home that effectively murders elderly civilians through the form of the Excellent Area, the most luxurious and expensive form of retirement.

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• Blatant Lies: Claims that his operation was peaceful euthanasia and that Nanoha asked for her dad to be mercy killed. Ichiban points out he murdered a woman in a wheelchair while she was still awake (he even heard her screaming) and when they meet Nanoha later it’s clear she was tricked into believing her dad needed an operation to survive.
• Flunky Boss: In both of his boss fights, he's not alone.
• The Starscream: He attempts a coup after he learns the Ijin Three were secretly cooperating with one another in a cold war. Too bad for him that Ichiban put him in his place once more.
• Too Dumb to Live:
  • He tries to lead Kasuga’s group into a trap at the Seiryu clan HQ and yet if you try to go into said trap without having a fully-equipped party (helmet, armor, and boots) he refuses to let you in because ‘it’ll make him look bad they’re not taking it seriously’. It’s for the player’s benefit but it makes him look like an idiot.
  • After the reveal the true nature of the Ijin Three alliance an angered Totsuka attempts to pick a fight with Ichiban again out of spite. Given how well his first fight went, can you guess how well it played out for him this time?
• What Happened to the Mouse?: It's not clear exactly what happens to him after getting beat up by Ichiban a second time, though Takabe implies that he took care of him offscreen.
• Would Hit a Girl: And kill one, too. He decks Hamako in the face when she refuses to reveal where Ichiban and his friends are. He then callously orders his men to do Hamako in... before Ichiban finally shows up to give him his just desserts.
• Yubitsume: Played with initially after he's punished by Hoshino and Takebe for Sunlight Castle, he gets to keep his finger but he is seen with more bruises than when Kasuga's group beat him.

The Yokohama Liumang

The Chinese mafia organization who control one area of Isezaki Ijincho. It’s said they make a huge profit from restaurants and import/export businesses, but how they spend that money is unknown.

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Akira Mabuchi

Voiced by: Masanori Takeda (Japanese), Edward Bosco (English)

The Yokohama Liumang's advisor and the organization’s number 2. He manages the import/export business, and his skills provide the organization with a plentiful supply of cash. He’s extremely ambitious, and in some ways sees Zhao as his rival.

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• The Ace: According to Zhao, Mabuchi had all the traits needed for a gangster and could have risen to the top had he been in a Yakuza organization like the Tojo or Omi. Aside from being multilingual (Japanese, English, Chinese, Korean) he had the brains and business skills to be a solid earner, the ruthlessness (and talent for violence) needed to get things done and the ambition to rise beyond the common thug. It was because of these traits that Zhao personally promoted Mabuchi as his second-in-command and was willing to grovel to the elders for his sake.
• Ambition Is Evil: He seeks to become the "Arakawa of Ijincho", even if that means sparking a gang war and selling his own family out to Bleach Japan. Even after being defeated he still has enough drive that he attempts to return to Ijincho for one last power grab (as well as vengeance on Zhao and Ichiban) and even being defeated a third time isn't enough to truly put out his spark.
• Badass Bookworm: According to Zheng, he used his incredible brainpower to rise out of poverty, go to a top school, and become multilingual in four incredibly useful languages for global trade (Japanese, Chinese, English, and Korean). He's also a surprisingly good fighter for being such a pudgy guy.
• Blood Knight: If his fancy choice of weaponry wasn’t enough of an indication then the fact that he starts laughing about how much he missed fighting right after Ichiban and his party beat the tar out of him and his party does.
• Easily Forgiven: Not just by Zhao, as noted in his character entry, but by Ichiban to a degree as well. Despite his murder of Nonomiya being the reason Ichiban got involved with the Ijin Three conflict, not to mention trying to torture him and his friends to death, he doesn’t argue against Zhao letting him go and even helps Zhao convince him to leave town again before Seonhee can catch him and make him pay for the Geomijul’s base being burned down.
• Evil Virtues: Ambition and Determination, in Zhao's eyes at least; despite acknowledging that Mabuchi was a scumbag with no redeeming traits he still has nothing but respect for how much the man achieved through talent and hard work to the point that he supported him as much as he could against his better judgment.
• Flunky Boss: Like Ishioda, he's never fought alone.
• The Ghost: Throughout chapter 5, despite it being named after him, which highlights his secretive and illusive nature as a shadowy underworld crime boss.
• Hate Sink: Not only he makes Ichiban and his gang go through even more ordeals on top of what they already have been through and is indirectly responsible for Nonomiya's murder, his obsessive ambition and tendency to sell out anyone close to him just for more clout in the eyes of the Omi make him an easy target of hatred on both sides of the fourth wall.
• Heel Realization: At the end of Zhao's Drink Link, when Zhao declares that in spite of everything he still sees him as a brother Mabuchi seemingly has a moment of understanding which at least leads him to take Zhao's advice and leave Ijincho for good.
• Humiliation Conga: He loses all power in the Omi Alliance, Liumang, AND he has no savings left. He's reduced to rock bottom and forced to flee forever.
• I Control My Minions Through...: Money. Zhao states that Mabuchi was able to win the loyalty of minions because he made it clear to others that anyone willing to do his dirty work will get paid.
• Improbable Weapon User: Despite its silly fantasy affectations, the game usually remembers that it's set in modern Japan, and its cast mostly use either Improvised Weapons or the sort of real weaponry that you could buy and carry around with reasonable ease. As a result, Mabuchi wielding a guandao like he's on an ancient Chinese battlefield takes everyone aback. Justified in this case as both times he's fought in the story (not counting the third time during Zhao's Drink Link), it's in a home base, and he's given a small Dynamic Intro of someone tossing him a guandao that he apparently keeps around.
• Manipulative Bastard: After he captures Ichiban and his party, he gets Ichiban to answer his questions in a specific sequence in order to use Manipulative Editing to make it look like they were members of the Seiryu Clan sabotaging the Yokohama Liumang. That way, he could spark a war with the Seiryu without being singled out as the one who pulled the trigger.
• The Mole: He's secretly working for Bleach Japan, giving the Omi Alliance a way into Ijincho to eliminate the gray zones.
• Omniglot: Fluent in English, Chinese, and Korean, in addition to his native Japanese.
• Optional Boss: Only during Zhao's Drink Link where he's fought once more, for the last time. In addition, an enemy who shares his moveset is fought midway through the Sotenbori dungeon.
• Recurring Boss: Is fought twice in the game. Three times if you max out Zhao's Drink Link, where now only Ichiban and Zhao fight him.
• Self-Made Man: Unlike Zhao, who was born into a position of power, Mabuchi earned his position by managing to get a college education (which as an ethnic minority in Japan is already incredibly difficult) and claw his way to the top through skill and hard work. Subverted in that while he did that on his own Zhao reveals he had to kneel to the old guard at least once to keep Mabuchi alive and he catered a favor to Seonhee so he has a headstart in getting out of Yokohama. As good Mabuchi was, his ambition and viciousness would have gotten him killed if he didn't have protection from higher power.
• Smug Snake: Mabuchi thinks that he's got the brains and will to become a shark in Japan's underworld, but in the end he's just a guppy trying to curry favor with the real sharks (the Omi Alliance) by selling out everyone around him. Further, his counterfeit yuan scheme is the backbone of his enterprise, but Seonhee reveals that he didn't even come up with it on his own (one of his subordinates suggested it to him), and it only got off the ground at all because he was unknowingly piggybacking off the Ijin Three's own counterfeit yen operation, and they decided it wasn't worth shutting down. He's also under the belief that he's capable of dodging the Geomijul's wrath when in reality the only reason Seonhee hasn't had him killed was because of Zhao's protection.
• Stout Strength: He looks like a pudgy, foppish Non-Action Big Bad, and the party mocks him when he whips out a guandao to take them on personally like he's some ancient warrior-hero, but he's actually surprisingly good with it.
• The Starscream: To Zhao. He's been secretly working with the Omi behind Zhao's back to eliminate all the gray zones in Ijincho, including the Liumang.
• Turns Red: Mabuchi's boss fights will have him enter Heat mode, appropriately denoted with a red flame aura around him, when he's brought down to half health.
• We Used to Be Friends: According to Zhao's character profile, Mabuchi was Zhao's childhood friend. This didn't stop Mabuchi from resenting Zhao at all, and he still took the first opportunity he got to betray him.
• Villain Forgot to Level Grind: When he's fought at the end of Zhao's Drink Link, not only he is only one level higher than he was when he was fought in Qing Jin, he doesn't learn any new tricks either. Unless you've done literally nothing else from aside from maxing out Zhao's Drink Link from the moment he joins, odds are that Ichiban and Zhao will have long since surpassed Mabuchi by that point.

Zheng

A low-ranking member of the Yokohama Liumang, Zheng is first introduced to the story harassing the homeless for what amounts to spare change.

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• Bald of Evil: He's bald and he's got a mean streak a mile wide if his Establishing Character Moment is any indication.
• The Bully: Deconstructed. He's introduced hustling the homeless for easy money, meaning he likes throwing his weight around to feel big. However, as Ichiban and Nanba point out, he was hustling them for what barely amounted to pocket change compared to what the Liumang made on someone else's turf, meaning he was screwing himself over just for kicks. This ties into how rough he had it growing up as a Chinese immigrant in Japan.
• Debt Detester: When Ichiban makes it clear that he has no intentions of ratting him out to Mabuchi, Zheng decides to pay him back by telling him what he knows.
• Dirty Coward: Tries to put on a threatening front after he gets his ass kicked, only for it to backfire in his face as Ichiban points out that their bosses aren't going to rally the troops for someone who got his ass handed to him by some homeless bums. He also panics the second Ichiban threatens to snitch on him to Zhao for his treatment and extortion of the homeless.
• Establishing Character Moment: Is introduced to the story harassing the homeless for money even going as far as threatening violence towards them, until Ichiban steps in to put him in his place.
• Flunky Boss: He's fought three times in the story. All three times with someone in tow. He's also fought alongside Mabuchi for the fourth and final time during Zhao's Drink Link.
• Freudian Excuse: After he lays out the difficulty living in Japan as a Chinese immigrant, even as a third-generation kid, its hard not to imagine how he ended up as a criminal preying on the smallest fry he can find.
• Hidden Depths: When Kasuga is about to leave him alone because he doesn't have any information he is frustrated enough as well as grateful enough for Kasuga's promise not to snitch on him to reveal more information deduced on his own from working at Mabuchi's import operation.
  • For being a petty dumb thug, he's able to lay out the complicated history and questionable legal status of many Chinise immigrants in Restaurant Row. He even admits that he considers himself lucky compared to a lot of other residents, which is the highest degree of empathy he ever manages.
• Kick the Dog: Picks on the homeless and steals their money, despite them not even being in Liumang territory. Enough said.
• Pet the Dog: Downplayed. He's rather surprised over Ichiban's genuine promise to not snitch on him despite his apparent failure to provide them with any usable information. Thus, he's willing to reveal more information on Mabuchi back when he used to work at one of his companies even if he's personally not sure it'll be much help. It ends up aiding them immensely in uncovering Mabuchi's shadier dealings.
• Smug Snake: Is so self-assured that the Liumang will come to his aid despite the fact their lieutenants have better things to do than to help a bottom-of-the-barrel triad deal with some homeless squatters.
• Starter Villain: The first of many criminal assholes that Ichiban has to deal with after starting a new life in Ijincho, Yokohama.
• What Happened to the Mouse?: After his third fight (Zhao's Drink Link notwithstanding), he vanishes from the story without much of a trace.
  • His appearance aiding Mabuchi during Zhao's Drink Link boss fight against him indicates that he ended up following Mabuchi out of the Liumang Clan when he was exiled, which would justify his sudden irrelevance to the main plot, coinciding with Mabuchi being rendered irrelevant as well.

Yan

Voiced by: Taichi Takeda (Japanese)

A foreman at the Yokohama Trading Company, Yan serves as an antagonist during the infiltration of the company.

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• Recurring Boss: He is fought three times: twice in Chapter 5, and once in Chapter 6.
• What Happened to the Mouse?: after the destruction of his excavator, he just disappears from the plot altogether.

The Geomijul

Geomijul is a mysterious Korean mafia organization nested in a stronghold called the "Spiderweb". Everything about the organization is shrouded in mystery, and no one knows their whole story.

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Seonhee

Voiced by: Hana Takeda (Japanese), Fiona Rene (English) ^{Other Languages}Yang Menglu (Chinese)

The leader of the mysterious organization Geomijul, which is nested in a stronghold where electric lines run throughout like spiderwebs. She almost never makes an appearance outside the stronghold, and is feared as a mysterious woman of power in the underworld of Isezaki Ijincho.

While originally an NPC in Like a Dragon, Seonhee becomes a playable party member in Infinite Wealth.

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• Ain't Too Proud to Beg: With the Omi-backed Bleach Japan mob inches away from her money printing facilities at the climax of Chapter 9, Seonhee was compelled to bow to Ichiban and co. to buy her enough time to torch the place.
• Ambiguously Bi: As well as having access to the same Night Queen class and its provocative abilities as Saeko & Chitose have, when asked if she's alright with going to a hostess club, Seonhee says that "girls look at other girls too" and is quite eager to visit.
• Animal Motifs: She's got a spider theme going on. Aside from the fact that Geomijul is just "Spider Web" in Korean, she wears a spiderweb necklace and is a mysterious figure who hides behind a figurative web of deception as well as physical ones in the web-like powerlines from their HQ. Her "Essence of Wicked Web" Kiwami Attack in Infinite Wealth has her summoning her Geomijul goon squad to impale her enemies with electrified rope darts to create a web of lightning.
• Arc Villain: She's the antagonist of Chapter 7 of Like A Dragon coming into conflict with Ichiban and his party because she wants to take in Nanba due to him spying on the Geomijul. The chapter is even called "Spider's Web", after her.
• Bad Boss: Played for Laughs with how she treats Utamaru. When he tries to act cool, she quickly puts him in his place and starts stepping on him while yelling. Otherwise averted since she’s shown to be a fair and reasonable leader.
• Barrier Maiden: The Geomijul acts as the mediator of the Ijin Three, acting as a neutral information broker that plays both sides to avoid all out war. As the leader of the Geomijul, she's responsible for keeping the peace.
• Berserk Button: Making fun of her looks was enough to piss her right off when Ichiban and co abscond from Geomijul's HQ after she tried to kill Nanba.
• Big Eater: She later admits that she has a large appetite and that her stomach is a 'bottomless pit.'
• Big Good: Gradually moves into the role over the course of the story as Ijincho's established power structures crumble away around her, leaving her with greater and greater responsibility as the last remaining adult in the room. By the end, she's functionally the leader of what used to be the Ijin Three, even if the Seiryu Clan remains more autonomous than the Geomijul-Liumang alliance.
• Buxom Beauty Standard: The male party members take notice of her busty figure, and the frequent zoom-ins at her cleavage suggest they're often ogling her chest.
• Cannot Spit It Out:
  • She's unable to tell Nanba that his brother is alive and safe, and resorts to trying to kill him instead. She's actually got a decent reason for it - said brother is working in the underground residential area that serves as both an emergency shelter for the Geomijul and a potentially fatal weakness in their defenses, which could result in an organisational collapse and a civilian massacre if the word gets out to their rivals - but that doesn't stop the whole thing from ending badly.
  • She has an obvious crush on Kiryu in Infinite Wealth, but never tells him out of respect and likely because of his cancer diagnosis making it a poor time to try and start anything.
• Combat Stilettos: She gets Promoted to Playable in Infinite Wealth, keeping her high-heeled sandals as she's fighting thugs and yakuza.
• Conflict Ball: In Like A Dragon, despite acting like a Reasonable Authority Figure otherwise, she makes no effort to reason or pacify Nanba when he asks her about his brother's whereabouts, even when he says he'd be satisfied with just knowing something vague, like if he's dead or alive. She only reveals the truth after he's spilled out her secrets to Bleached Japan and betrayed the party.
• Conspicuous Gloves: The fact she's wearing black gloves is a clue she's not just a normal civilian.
• Contrasting Sequel Main Character: Not quite a main character, but she's this to the Florist of Sai. Both are mysterious figures known in their respective cities as being practically all-knowing, and the source of said omnipotence is revealed to be a series of well-hidden security cameras scattered throughout the city. However, while the Florist is an ally to Kiryu throughout his run as The Protagonist, at worst just having him compete in his underground arena in exchange for information, Seonhee is starts off as a Bitch in Sheep's Clothing who has no qualms with trying to kill Ichiban and co. when they threaten her empire, namely Nanba for being in the know of their money laundering. Plus, while the Florist is a middle-aged old man with a bit of a gut on him, Seonhee is a young-looking and attractive woman.
• Deadpan Snarker: Even in a World of Snark like this one, Seonhee goes above and beyond when she joins the party in Infinite Wealth. Almost everything she says is laced with a healthy amount of sass.
• Delinquent Hair: Her brightly dyed lilac hair fits with her being a member of a peculiar criminal group.
• Didn't See That Coming: When she reveals the truth about Nanba to the party, she did not expect them to still consider him a True Companion and to fight her for his sake, which completely derailed her plans.
• Exposed to the Elements: In Infinite Wealth, when going to a snowy area in a later chapter, the only thing she puts on is a scarf. She keeps the miniskirt and bare legs of her regular outfit. By contrast, Saeko is a bit more dressed up.
• Faux Action Girl: In Like a Dragon. She holds authority and draws a gun out at one point, but she actually just leaves the fighting to her underlings. She ends up simply disarmed in a cutscene and doesn't put up a fight afterwards, instead just sending her men to do the fighting for her. That being said, she does give Ishioda a kick to the nads that takes him out of the fight. Fixed in Infinite Wealth, where she becomes playable and gets her hands just as dirty as the rest of the party.
• Femme Fatale: She's a dangerous not above using her feminine wiles to her advantage, as shown by her flirting with Ichiban while she draws the party deeper into Geomijul territory.
• Flechette Storm: As a playable character, she uses throwing needles as her default weapon in her "Assassin" class.
• Groin Attack: Delivered one to Ishioda when they finally met in person. While wearing high heels.
• Head-Turning Beauty: Her beauty tends to get a reaction out of people. When they first see her, the party even assumes she's a model.
• Hero-Worshipper: To Kiryu. While she frames spending time with him as her welcoming a legend to her city, it’s clear that she’s a big fan and mostly using it as an excuse to hang around. She even protests when called about a situation since she’s spending time with her idol.
• Hidden Heart of Gold: Despite coming off as a cold-blooded criminal, Seonhee is actually a very kind person.
  • We're made to believe that she either imprisoned or killed Nanba's brother for discovering the Geomijul. As it turns out, she was actually so impressed by his investigative skills that she hired him to work for them. For the safety of him and his brother however, she couldn't disclose what happened to him.
  • Infinite Wealth cements her as being a huge softie under the iron façade. Not only does she jump at the opportunity to bring Kiryu out of his depression as his cancer worsens, various discussions in the party show that she's very considerate of everyone and their feelings, up to being Nice to the Waiter.
• High-Heel Power: She frequently wears high heels, which symbolize her ruthlessness as The Queenpin. She even has a unique move called "Sadistic Heel" in Infinite Wealth when she trips someone and then stomps on their face with her heels.
• I'm Standing Right Here: When the party first sees her, they all get into a discussion about her appearance, and don't stop until she speaks up, saying she's standing right next to them and can hear all that they're saying about her.
• Inconsistent Spelling: Her name was incorrectly romanized as "Seong-hui" in Like a Dragon and was only corrected to "Seonhee" in Infinite Wealth.^note The mistake comes from the fact that the Japanese pronunciation of her name, "Sonhi", could potentially come from either, but according to the Chinese version, her name hanja is 善熙, which corresponds to the latter.
• Iron Lady: She acts much more cold and ruthless when she's acting as the head of the Geomijul, and doesn't like showing any weakness or unnecessary emotion. Her real personality is more quirky and laid back. This attitude is shown to be necessary so she can remain as The Queenpin, as Infinite Wealth shows a few members of the Geomijul do not approve of having a woman as their leader.
• The Knights Who Say "Squee!": She's all too excited to be fighting alongside Kiryu in Infinite Wealth, with her Drink Links having her fangirl side showing a couple of times.
• The Leader: She's the leader of the Geomijul, a Korean-Japanese criminal organization in Yokohama.
• Lightning Bruiser: As a playable character in Infinite Wealth, she has the highest health pool compared to the other two female party members, some of the best agility in the game out of the gate, and hits almost as hard as Kiryu does in his default Dragon of Dojima class.
• Ms. Fanservice: Her skirt is short enough to show off a lot of her legs, and the neckline of her blouse is low enough to show some cleavage. The camera in the cutscenes at times also seems to deliberately angle itself downwards to emphasize her breasts. Her Hawaii outfit in Infinite Wealth also leaves little to the imagination, since she only wears a bra underneath a blazer.
• Must Have Caffeine: The woman's particular about her coffee. Joon-gi Han had to master various brewing techniques to make the stuff to her liking. One of his men had the idea of serving her instant coffee when they were completely out of beans. To Han's surprise, the instant coffee beat out her preferred brew.
• Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: Unfortunately, her inability to disclose what happened to Nanba's brother makes Nanba desperate enough to ally with Bleach Japan.
• Not So Above It All: Infinite Wealth shows that she’s just as goofy as the rest of the heroes. She has quirky habits, has an obvious fangirl crush on Kiryu, and partakes in many of the same shenanigans as the rest of the group. In the Big Swell DLC she also somewhat meekly requests a Girls Day when given the chance and is embarrassed when Joongi comments on it.
• Promoted to Playable: She was introduced as an NPC in Like A Dragon but becomes a playable party member in Infinite Wealth.
• The Queenpin: She is the first female criminal organization leader in the series that isn't just an acting leader like Yayoi Dojima, with the party even acting surprised that she's the leader of Geomijul is a woman. Her being a whole is
• Rank Scales with Asskicking: As shown in Infinite Wealth, she's not Geomijul's (and later the Liumang's) head honcho for nothing. Especially when she manages to hold back even Taiga Saejima (who is Kiryu's equal, by the way) during the boss fight with him, Daigo, and Majima.
• Reasonable Authority Figure: Played With. While she's usually reasonable with her dealings with Ichiban and the party, and soon becomes a major ally in their quest, she's very unwilling to make any sort of concession when it comes to dealing with Nanba, being insistent on killing him. even though his reasons for going against her (his brother's whereabouts) are within her
• Samus Is a Girl: Ichiban's party was actually shocked to find out a woman was The Leader of the Geomijul.
• Ship Tease:
  • Subverted In Like A Dragon. Seonhee spends quite a bit of Chapter 7 flirting with Ichiban, to the rest of his party's annoyance. But her flirtatious banter was just her way to manipulate him and all flirtation between both comes to a halt after the reveal that she insists on having Nanba killed for his attempts to spy on the Geomijul. Seonhee is also not a romance option for Ichiban and treats him normally for the rest of the game.
  • In Infinite Wealth, she is rather blatant about having fallen for Kiryu, She accidentally lets slip in a Party Talk that she wouldn't at all mind if she and him were going steady, only to immediately backpedal when Kiryu asks her to clarify what she means.
• Single-Target Sexuality: The only person she shows any real attraction to is Kiryu. Any other flirting she does with other men is either fake or clearly mocking.
• Sunglasses at Night: When the party first meets her, she's wearing shade even though it's in the middle of the night. Adachi immediately comments this is suspicious but also a "cool look". She only takes off the glasses once she reveals her identity.
• Team Mom: In the Big Swell DLC she lectures the men in the party twice, first when they get distracted by a porn mag and the second when they try to spy on the girls talk she has with Chitose and Saeko. Both times she comes across as a stern and disappointed parent. She also seems to be this to Geomijul in general judging from some of her comments.
• The Unfought: Keeping the series tradition of not allowing female opponents, Seonhee is never fought in Like A Dragon despite Ichiban and his party coming into direct conflict with the Geomijul while she's physically present. She's armed but spends the actual battles standing on the sidelines while her men do the fighting.
• Vague Age: It’s unknown how old she is. She could easily pass for someone in her mid to late 20’s, but she’s the leader of the Geomijul and she often treats Joongi (who’s 37 as of Infinite Wealth) as a little brother she has to watch out for in group talks.
• Walking Armory: As a playable character, much like Han her default class uses a ton of weapons aside from her throwing needles. She'll bust out flashbangs, crossbows and a massive power cable to use as a lash among others.
• Whip of Dominance: As a playable character she has "Voltaic Whip" and "Stentorian Whip", in which she pulls out a power cable as a whip, befitting her authoritative personality. She also works well when respecced into a Night Queen, which uses riding crops as weapons.
• Why Did It Have to Be Snakes?: She can't stand rats and cockroaches. Joon-Gi Han dreadfully claims that if she sees one, Yokohama will "drown in a sea of flames". Gets a Continuity Nod in a Party Chat in Infinite Wealth where she has a Freak Out at seeing a roach around the city.
• Worthy Opponent: She was impressed by Nanba's brother's skills at sleuthing, so much so that she hired him because of it.

Joon-Gi Han

See Heroes of Tomorrow page

Bleach Japan

A non-profit organization that works to eliminate the various “gray zones” in society, and create an open and wholesome society. At the time of the game's events, the organization is targeting and actively working in Isezaki Ijincho, where there are many remaining illegal brothels and the like.

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Ryo Aoki (UNMARKED SPOILERS for Like a Dragon)

Voiced by: Kosuke Toriumi (Japanese), Will Yun Lee (English)

The current governor of Tokyo, who was involved in the organization as a first-generation representative. After being elected as the youngest governor of Tokyo in history, he brought down the Tojo Clan through the “Kamurocho 3K Plan” and quickly became the hero of the era. With overwhelming support from men and women of every age, it is said that it will not be long before he becomes prime minister.

In reality, he is actually Masato Arakawa, having disappeared and taken on a new identity.

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• Achilles' Heel: One of his most important assets is his relationship with the Omi Alliance, the largest and most powerful crime syndicate in Japan, for whom he's offering power and legitimacy in the middle of a national crackdown on organized crime. Unfortunately for him, keeping them sweet involves delegating a lot of important jobs to undisciplined street thugs rather than the trained professionals that a senior politician would normally rely on, which helps out Ichiban and his crew numerous times during the story.
• Alas, Poor Villain: Just when Masato was about to turn himself to the police to redeem himself, he was stabbed by Kume, a person who thought of him as a role model. Before Ichiban could carry him to the hospital, he died and he never had any proper chance for redemption.
• Antagonistic Governor: He's the Governor of Tokyo, which makes him more or less the most politically powerful antagonist of the series so far.
• Bad Boss: He does not hesitate to have any of his minions killed if he deems them a liability in some way, such as him suspecting them of squealing or if they don't follow orders. Near the end, Tendo makes a point of warning him that he's not as disposable as others.
• Big Bad: As the one running Bleach Japan, he's the cause of every major conflict in the story.
• Broken Pedestal: Aoki becomes this to Kume, one of the few earnest believers in Aoki and Bleach Japan's mission statement. This drives him to take matters into his own hands and "enact justice" on Aoki himself.
• Cain and Abel: In a sense, the Cain to Ichiban's Abel, since, as Ichiban is Masumi Arakawa's actual biological son, since he's Masato Arakawa, he's Ichiban's adoptive brother, in a way.
• Chronic Backstabbing Disorder: Hoo boy, could he not be any more different than Ichiban here. Served with a side of You Have Outlived Your Usefulness, Aoki's not above betraying even his most loyal subordinates if it means securing his position as the next prime minister of Japan. He even discards Sawashiro, his father and most loyal subordinate, like used tissue paper, replacing him with Ishioda and eventually Tendo as his Dragon. This comes back to bite him in the ass hard when he also makes the mistake of betraying Mirror Face, who goes on to aid Ichiban and his friends in their Engineered Public Confession against Aoki.
• Clark Kenting: Justified in that he's far more well-known as Aoki than as Masato, having already abandoned that identity and faked his death, and every other person has no other option than to stay quiet about who he used to be. Yet a shave and a haircut, plus the glasses and operation he had overseas, still wasn't enough to keep Ichiban from recognizing him.
• Contrasting Sequel Antagonist:
  • To Iwami. Both are influential men who wear glasses who appear non-threatening until they step up to fight. However, when it comes to their specific characters, they are diametric opposites. While Iwami piggybacked off of his father's connections to get his way, Masato actively rejected his former life including his father and built a new identity for himself. And whereas Iwami was a Psychopathic Manchild who desperately wanted to become a member of the yakuza, Masato outright loathes the yakuza and wants to put an end to their authority by bringing them under his control.
  • He's also one to Nishikiyama. Nishiki was always extremely emotional and empathic to a fault which becomes the drive for him to become a ruthless power seeker and willing to use everyone yet inspired loyalty within his group. Meanwhile, Masato loathed everyone in the Yakuza both secretly and openly, never grateful for the efforts made by his family to care for him. Their motivation to become a ruthless leader is similar however, driven by unrequited feelings towards the women they love, who married someone else who benefitted from their crimes, but while Yumi's relationship with Jingu ended with her death at his hands, Yumeno was fully complicit in Horinouchi's corruption and never loved Masato.
• Control Freak: He hates the possibility of the people working for him acting without his knowledge. This obsession probably stemmed from the Dirty Cop Horinouchi and his then-girlfriend Yumeno plotting against him, which made him realize that just having money couldn't earn him the affection he craved, resulting in his plans to change his identity and become governor just to make sure the entire of Japan would be under his control and ensure that he'd never suffer a painful betrayal again.
• Corrupt Politician: He's the governor of Tokyo who is scheming for absolute power over both the political world and the criminal underworld.
• Crocodile Tears: He puts on a really convincing performance as a mourning friend of Bleach Japan's co-founder Ogasawara to the extent it leaves the people watching the broadcast in tears, which belies the fact that he secretly ordered Ogasawara's death in the first place.
• Deadpan Snarker: Sometimes. Though it's mostly to talk down to or to make fun of Ichiban.
  Masato: [on Ichiban's hair] Of course, if I were him, I might've combed my hair before I got on national television!
• Death by Irony: After spending the latter half of the game repeatedly pulling a You Have Outlived Your Usefulness on his subordinates, it's rather fitting that one of his own would eventually fatally stab him for failing to live up to the pure image he had been propagating.
• Despair Event Horizon: Goes through two. Once when he sees that Yumeno betrayed and left him for Horinouchi, and another when he's walking out of the Millennium Tower after his defeat, realizing that his political career is over.
• Died in Your Arms Tonight: Ultimately dies in Ichiban's. Which is rather poetic considering how his life began in the hands of one Arakawa and ended in the arms of another.
• Disproportionate Retribution:
  • How does he get back at Horinouchi and Yumeno for that night on New Year's Eve back in 2000? By starting the entire Bleach Japan movement alongside Ogasawara and becoming a big-name politician, rising to power in the process. All of this just so he can get back at Horinouchi in particular.
  • Despite the fact that Ichiban clearly didn't stand a chance against Kume in the field of politics, Aoki still has Hoshino, the man who helped Ichiban with his campaign, killed simply because he just couldn't tolerate such a farce.
• Do Unto Others Before They Do Unto Us: How he rationalizes his actions: for the sake of a "just country", he's willing to become just as bad as the yakuza, if not worse, in both morals and method, and destroy them at their own game. To him, who knew little else growing up, it was the only way to erase them.
• Driven to Suicide: When Ichiban confronts him at the coin lockers where their lives began, after baring his heart out Aoki points the gun he stole off a cop at himself. It takes a desperate Ichiban tearfully pleading with him to not go through with it for him to finally relent.
• Drunk with Power: As Arakawa puts it, Masato getting a taste of the perks of political power has caused him to desire even more, and he'll destroy himself to attain it. Sure enough, Masato loses everything by the end.
• Dub Personality Change: In the original Japanese, he implies that he became so power-hungry because he wanted to avoid being ostracized and used like he was years ago. In the English dub, he instead says that no one ever accepted him for who he was, implying that it was isolation that turned him down a dark path. Self-loathing leads him to attempt to shoot himself regardless.
• Duel Boss: The final battle against him is a simple fist-fight between him and Ichiban.
• Engineered Public Confession: Ichiban brings his career to an end by recording Masato revealing himself to be the one who ordered Arakawa's death to Tendo (really Mirror Face in disguise), as well as his intention to kill everyone who might know.
• Even Evil Can Be Loved: He's incredibly ungrateful and even resentful towards the people who care the most about him due to them being yakuza, but despite all the bad crap he's dragged them through, Arakawa, Sawashiro, and Ichiban refuse to give up on him.
• Evil Cannot Comprehend Good: He's utterly incapable of believing that anyone would help him out of the kindness of their heart. To him, people either are used or use others. It's also noted to be one of his personal flaws as his inability to trust anyone causes him to kill people unnecessarily. Ichiban even notes that he and Tendo are the type of assholes who cannot understand the idea of loyalty.
• Evil Counterpart: To Ichiban. Besides their contrasting appearances and shared charisma, Ichiban uses his manipulation skills often for good intentions whereas Masato is more than willing to do anything and everything to get what he wants. Even if it means ordering his own father's death and effectively leaving his actual father Sawashiro for dead.
• Evil Is Not a Toy: Tries to become the de facto ruler of Japan by bulldozing through its political institutions at the head of an army of vigilantes who view the country's criminal underclass as subhumans worthy of extermination. Naturally, this ends badly for him once his own criminal past and present are exposed.
• Evil Is Petty:
  • Orders Hoshino's death for having bankrolled Ichiban's political campaign against Kume. Even though Ichiban had absolutely no chance of actually beating Kume, the fact that he tried at all is an embarrassment that Masato cannot tolerate. It's also his way of punishing Sawashiro since as far as he's concerned he'll end up dead whether or not he succeeds.
  • The reason he takes such specific interest in Kume and Bleach Japan winning Kanagawa-2nd, despite it being just one district in a nationwide election, is because it was the representative seat of Yutaka Ogikubo, the previous Citizen's Liberal Party chair whom Masato held a grudge against for refusing to endorse his run for governor years ago and dismissing Bleach Japan as "a bunch of kids playing at politics". Ogikubo also took pride in helping to develop Ijincho's "grey zones", which he credited with having saved the lives of hundreds of impoverished people who would've otherwise slipped through the cracks of Japan's notoriously classist and nativist social services. So for that snub, Masato isn't content with merely usurping Ogikubo's position as party chair; he has to utterly humiliate Ogikubo by ensuring that he loses his home district to one of the very "naïve kids" that he thumbed his nose at, endorsed by his own party, on a platform based around gentrifying the area and destroying everything he'd built and accomplished.
  • During his meeting with Ichiban he continuously talks down to him, derisively noting that he grew up in a soapland and that he's basically an ant not even worth killing. And back when he was Masato Arakawa he embarrassed Ichiban in front of Yumeno and other hostesses by forcing him to give a subpar gift and then calling him 'Ichibad'.
  • He keeps Horinouchi around because it amuses him to force the man that thought himself above him in the past to do his bidding.
  • His entire Start of Darkness was motivated over how Horinouchi and Yumeno humiliated him 18 years prior to the start of the story. He could never get over how Horinouchi demeaned him in front of Yumeno for his association with the Yakuza and so he decided that he would get involved with politics to both rule over the Yakuza and to make Horinouchi under his beck and call. But then he got Drunk with Power.
• Famed In-Story: As said in the description, he is the youngest governor Tokyo has ever had in history and is credited with 'bringing down' the Tojo Clan.
• Fascist, but Inefficient: He's seeking power using a playbook extremely similar to the original fascists of the twenties and thirties, with all the attendant disadvantages. His goal is attaining a monopoly on violence inside and outside the state by turning mobsters and far-right goons into paramilitary 'crimefighters' who can bypass, degrade and destroy any rival power structures on either side of the law. The end result is that his new Japan is built on the backs of questionably loyal, questionably disciplined, and questionably competent crooks and fanatics who he has far less control of than he might hope.
• Fatal Flaw: His rampant paranoia and belief that everyone else is a pawn that must be disposed of once they are no longer useful. The former leads him to arrange a raid on the Millennium Tower to find an incriminating tape of him ordering an assassination, despite its existence very clearly being a bluff on Ichiban's end, simply because he cannot bring himself to take the risk of ignoring it. The latter leads him to set himself up for an engineered confession by Mirror Face, an assassin he'd arranged to hire and then tried to have killed when Ichiban and his group beat him. The entire process of his downfall is itself set up by him trying to get Sawashiro assassinated while he was in jail, a move that was also completely unnecessary due to Sawashiro having been given a life sentence and having already demonstrated that he was completely loyal to Masato and would never sell him out.
• Faux Affably Evil: "Apologizes" to Ichiban about being attacked by his lackeys after Ichiban defeats them. His meeting with Ichiban in Otohime land also has him treating the latter with barely hidden condescension and insults.
• Fisticuffs Boss: The final showdown with him forces Ichiban into the Freelancer class so it mostly becomes a pure fist-fight.
• Flunky Boss: The first phase of his boss fight has him fighting alongside a large group of goons, with him calling in reinforcements periodically.
• Freudian Excuse: He spent his entire childhood confined to a wheelchair from illness and was ostracized because his father was the head of a yakuza family, both of which he greatly resented. Then on the night of his girlfriend's birthday, he finds out that she only stayed with him because of his wealth and was secretly dating an older man on the side. He ultimately turned his feelings of helplessness into hatred for the yakuza as a whole, blaming them for the isolation he endured, while becoming distant from everyone else to the extent he only saw them as tools, believing that they only cared about using him as well...
• Freudian Excuse Is No Excuse: ...but on the same token by the end of the game, Ichiban has finally had enough and calls Masato out on the fact that he never got over being used and embarrassed by Yumeno all those years ago and how it doesn't excuse his fall.
• Gameplay and Story Integration: The two stages of Masato's final boss battle both be relatively simple compared to preceeding fight with Tendo highlights how Masato was never really a true combatant. By that point in the game, Ichiban and the player had survived fighting through absolute monsters in the setting, so defeating Masato proves easy by comparison.
• Good Old Fisticuffs: The last fight of the game is a Duel Boss fight where Ichiban and Masato settle things with their fists. According to his Sujidex entry he did pick up some fighting techniques from his time in the United States.
• Hates Their Parent: Infinite Wealth reveals he hated his birth father Jo Sawashiro just as much as he did his adoptive father Masumi Arakawa, seeing him as no better than the other yakuza he viewed as disposable pawns to discard, to the point where he callously chose to frame Sawashiro for an assassination just to screw him over out of pure spite.
• Heel–Face Door-Slam: It takes a lot of effort on Ichiban's part to finally get him to see reason, but right as he finally comes around, Kume stabs him dead.
• Heel Realization: It takes losing everything he's worked for in the past decade, coupled with Ichiban desperately pleading to his old master, for him to realize just how far he's gone and ultimately allow himself to be arrested. Kume fatally wounds him before that can happen.
• Hidden Disdain Reveal: While he was never exactly nice to Ichiban, during his Villainous Breakdown he outright states that he never liked him in the first place because he reminded him too much of the father he hated. Nonetheless, in his final moments, Masato addresses Ichiban as "Ichi" and jokes how the path to redemption would have been nice.
  Masato: You're just like him. Every single goddamn thing about you is just like my fucking dad. And that's exactly why... I never liked you.
• History Repeats: Found at the coin lockers as a baby at the brink of death, Masumi carried him in arms and pushed through a crowd of onlookers in a desperate bid to get him to the hospital to save his life. Years later, after being fatally wounded at the same coin lockers by Kume, Masumi's biological son Ichiban becomes the one to carry him in arms and push through a similar crowd to the hospital in another attempt to save him.
• How the Mighty Have Fallen: By the end of the game, all of his crimes were exposed to the public and led to the fall of Bleach Japan, an organization he worked hard to maintain and grow.
• Hypocrite:
  • Despite resenting his Yakuza origins and trying to distance himself from them, he was only able to get as powerful as he was by constantly relying on said Yakuza connections.
  • For all of his talk of how nobody cared about him and just used him for his money, he himself acknowledges that Arakawa, Sawashiro and Ichiban did try to bond with him. He just lacked the self-awareness to realize it and kept pushing them away.
• I Just Want to Be Loved: All Masato ever really wanted was someone who saw him for who he was rather than the family he was born (or rather adopted) into. When he believed he would forever be alone, he sought to secure enough power to ensure no one would be able to hurt him ever again. The tragedy is that because of his resentment towards being part of a yakuza family, he never realized he had the unconditional love of Arakawa, Sawashiro, and Ichiban, meaning he was never alone.
• Informed Attribute: His appearance is described to have been so drastically different from his old self that most of those who knew him as Masato Arakawa, such as his ex-girlfriend and Horinouchi, failed to recognize him in person. In realistic terms, his face model is basically just a less gaunt and shaven Masato with glasses on.
• Irony: Aoki is a walking contradiction chockful of this:
  • He despised and resented everything about the Yakuza, only to become one in all but name.
  • He mocked the trappings and rhetoric about 'family' surrounding the Yakuza lifestyle, and in the process, treated his own biological father like a mere underling, never realizing who his father really was.
  • A man so distrustful of his own subordinates that he would order their deaths as precaution, he is killed by the one man who so ardently believed in his lies and was merely thought of as a meager pawn to play kingmaker with. His mendacity and egomania drove a loyal and naive man to murder, all for the sake of a "justice" Aoki never really believed in.
  • No matter which father he ended up with, he would have always had some sort of connection to the Yakuza, even if it was just biologically.
  • His attempts to gain forward facing power to become the most powerful man in Japan is to spite Horinouchi for refusing a bribe, yet Horinouchi is well aware of his actions but only chooses to turn a blind eye to it because of the bribes he gave him.
• It's All About Me: He firmly believes that there is the useful and the used, those that lead and those that serve. He sees himself as the former, which rationalizes using and discarding so many of his underlings with callous casualty.
• Ivy League for Everyone: A rare Japanese example; He studied Political Economics at Harvard.
• Kick the Dog:
  • His housing facilities trick desperate immigrants by claiming it'll help them get jobs and visas only for them to be deported en masse.
  • He continuously insults and looks down on Ichiban despite spending 18 years in jail for his sake and Ichiban treating him like family despite everything.
• Laser-Guided Karma: He's fatally stabbed by Kume, an ardent follower of the movement he created and a man he was planning to use as a pawn to get himself a greater authority. It feels more tragic than cathartic however as he had just realized how far he had fallen and was going to give himself up to the police.
• Last Request: Before he dies, he tells Ichiban to keep living while joking about how he's gonna start from the very bottom.
  Masato: Keep living, Ichi. Starting over from rock bottom, huh? I'll take those odds.
• Laughing Mad: He breaks out into a moment of hysterics when he recounts to Ichiban a meeting he had with Yumeno after assuming his new identity, noting the irony of the woman unknowingly calling the man she was previously repulsed by and betrayed a gentleman.
• Like Father, Like Son: As Sawashiro's true son, Masato picked up on the man's cruelty and ruthlessness.
• Lonely at the Top: Ichiban spells it out for Masato that in his pursuit of power, he threw away everyone who ever cared about him and now is living a life completely alone. Masato even confesses that he came to a similar realization long ago when meeting Yumeno as Aoki, realizing that the empty praise she gave him meant that all the power he achieved was completely meaningless.
• Mirror Character: Masato serves as a mirror to Ichiban, who declares themselves to be light and shadow respectively.
  • Despite their different upbringings, both faced great struggles in their youth. Ichiban grew up as a street urchin struggling to get buy while Masato had both a physical disability and the stigma of being from a crime family that alienated him from his peers. Both ended up managing to overcome said struggles through personal effort (though Masato had the benefit of his father's money and connections to get to where he is).
  • Both are naturally charismatic individuals who are capable of drawing people towards them. While Ichiban's charisma leads to him surrounding himself with loyal friends that will do anything for one another, Masato uses his talents to surround himself with followers and lackeys that he treats as disposable.
  • Appearance-wise they are the complete opposite. Ichiban has a scruffy and wild appearance and wears an unkempt red suit while Masato has a very well-kept appearance and wears a blue suit.
• Mirthless Laughter: During his Villainous Breakdown at the end, he bursts into hysterical laughter as he tells the story about how his ex-girlfriend, who was more than willing to use and dump Masato Arakawa, was falling over herself to schmooze with Ryo Aoki. A text book example of the ironic version.
• Murder Is the Best Solution: His go-to solution for any problem, no matter how slight, is to kill it before it can get any worse. It bites him in the ass during his Engineered Public Confession where the first thing he does after seemingly seeing Ichiban's party beaten is to order Tendo (really Mirror Face) to kill them and whatever friends and accomplices Ichiban had.
• My God, What Have I Done?: Downplayed. He realizes that everything that he's done throughout the course of the game all came down to that day eighteen years ago when Yumeno left him for Horinouchi. It's implied that, after Ichiban tells him so, he's likely regretful of his treatment of Arakawa and Sawashiro.
• Never Be Hurt Again: His constant hunger for power is motivated by him not wanting to be as helpless as he believed he was in his youth when he was confined to a wheelchair.
• Not-So-Well-Intentioned Extremist: He claims that his end goal is to make Japan "clean" by wiping out the gray areas, but as Ichiban somberly points out after Masato's defeat, he has only really cared about controlling others and killed even those who supported him.
• Not Worth Killing: Claims that he doesn’t plan to kill Ichiban because ‘there’s no point in squishing an ant’. Of course when Ichiban refuses to follow his demands he has Sawashiro and a whole gang ready to kill him so he was likely just trying to insult him.
• Older Than They Look: Deliberately enforced as part of his political image. He's 42 but his youthful look is almost certainly a deliberate way to cultivate an image as a young populist.
• Only Friend: Ironically, Ichiban is this for him. While Arakawa and Sawashiro care about him due to parental duties Ichiban is the only other person who truly cares for him up until the very end. Every other ally he has is a pawn (Bleach Japan and the Omi Alliance as whole), tied to him due to the benefits they gain (Horinouchi, Ogasawara, Tendo and Ishioda) or are too blinded by hero worship to see him for who he is (Kume and his secretary, with the former even being the one who eventually kills him). However, he was never able to see Ichiban as anything other than his father's lackey until the very end.
• The Paranoiac: His inability to trust anyone means that he's incredibly paranoid and will take action to eliminate anything or anyone he sees as a loose end. This ends up biting him in the end, where Ichiban is able to orchestrate an Engineered Public Confession by bluffing him into thinking that there's incriminating evidence in the Arakawa office of the Millennium Tower, leading him to send Tendo and later personally going to the Millennium Tower to confirm for himself.
• Pet the Dog: The only person he doesn't treat with any thinly-veiled contempt is his personal secretary, who he is actually fairly courteous to. He even gives her a call to inform her that he's going to turn himself in after seeing the error of his ways.
• Politically Incorrect Villain: The cause celebre that he built his political career around is effectively all the worst aspects of gentrification in how it unfairly punishes the lower class, and while he's not as much of a true believer as his fanatical followers, he has little but contempt for the people Japan's safety net has failed.
• Post-Final Boss: He's noticeably easier coming off the heels of the juggernaut that was Tendo. No surprise considering how he was confined to a wheelchair most of his life, and a politician who leaves the dirty work to his underlings.
• Sad Battle Music: His leitmotif, "ism" during his final fight is noticeably sadder than past boss fights in the series. A first since Yakuza 2's Final Boss.
• Say My Name: During his Villainous Breakdown.
  Masato: ICHIBAAAAN!!! You don't get to do this to me! YOU FUCK!!!
• Self-Made Orphan: He orders Sawashiro to kill Arakawa after finding out about his involvement with the disbanding of the Tojo Clan and Omi Alliance, which is ironic considering Sawashiro is his biological father though not the man who raised him. He then unknowingly tries to do this in an indirect way to Sawashiro as well, ordering him to kill Hoshino, knowing that doing so would make Sawashiro a dead man walking.
• Start of Darkness: Masato shooting Suzumori all those years ago is what started him down his current path. Though he looked and sounded borderline catatonic when he called Sawashiro to report the deed, in the present, he reflects on the incident without a hint of remorse.
• Switched at Birth: He is actually the son of Jo Sawashiro, abandoned in a locker as an infant because Sawashiro and his girlfriend felt they were unprepared to be parents. In a twist of fate, he happened to be placed in a locker right next to where Arakawa's newborn son was being hidden, leading Arakawa to take Masato by mistake. The other baby was Ichiban.
• Take Over the World: His ultimate goal is control over Japan through, as he calls it, "front-facing power," positive PR from the people, and he uses his "rear-facing power," his connections in Japan's underground, to achieve this.
• Terms of Endangerment: When he and Ichiban finally reunite properly, he uses the nickname "Ichi" more as his way of asserting authority. It isn't until they very end that he uses it in earnest.
• That Man Is Dead: Discarding his identity as Masato Arakawa was the only way to clear the hurdles to healing himself. Being able to use the new identity to amass power for himself wasn't a bad perk either.
• Throwing Off the Disability: This time permanently via a lung transplant in America.
• Tragic Villain: Despite how much of a corrupt and power-hungry person he's become in the present, it was born from a feeling of helplessness he endured throughout his youth. He was abandoned as an infant, confined to a wheelchair for most of his life, was ostracized because his father was a yakuza, and had people take advantage of him for his wealth. Despite everything he's done, Ichiban shows nothing but pity for the man he's turned into, still remembering the time when they were friends. And like many classic examples of this trope, he's done in by his own creation just after he realizes how far he's fallen.
  Masato: [pointing a gun to his head] I started off in life with a weak, ugly body that embarrassed me. I worked hard to improve myself, but after all that, I still wasn't happy 'cause no one appreciated who I really was on the inside.
• Underestimating Badassery: Thinks Ichiban is nothing more than a dumb thug that he can step over easily. When he sees the piles of goons the party beat in the finale he’s in disbelief and asks incredulously how someone like Ichiban was able to outwit him.
• Ungrateful Bastard: Like Sawashiro above, he’s hardly grateful that Ichiban spent 18 years in jail for a murder that he committed. He even uses it to insult Ichiban’s Undying Loyalty to his father. In addition, during Ichiban's time as his servant, he never shows appreciation for the things his family did for him in his crippled state.
• Villainous Breakdown: After he's publicly exposed and beaten by Ichiban, he loses all composure as everything comes crashing down. It ultimately culminates in him going to the coin locker where he was found, opening up to Ichiban about how miserable he truly is and teetering on the edge of suicide.
  Ryo Aoki: Ichiban... ICHIBAN! You don't get to do this to me! You fuck!
• Villain Has a Point:
  • He's completely wrong about his own family's talk of familial bonds being insincere, but his rant during his Villainous Breakdown about how the yakuza use the concept of "family" and "honor" as pure lip service whenever it's convenient to them has been proven throughout the entire series to be correct. Even in Like a Dragon, members of the same families and clans end up turning on each other to get themselves ahead.
    Masato: You want me to start over because "the boss" told you to keep tabs on me? You fucking patriarchs and your oaths... I always hated how you yakuza pretended to be family. All this talk of "duty" and "bonds" to brainwash you into brotherhood! It pisses me off!
  • Also, as cruel as the way he said it was, he’s also right that Arakawa sent Ichiban to jail for Masato’s crimes and didn’t have the decency to tell him the truth despite the magnitude of the sacrifice. Even Arakawa acknowledges it by sadly telling Ichiban that he never did anything for him.
  • Having the Omi murder Ogasawara because he might have talked to Ichiban, even though he couldn't be 100% sure. Ichiban can't deny Ogasawara did spill the beans, though it helps that Aoki and Ogasawara have been working together for roughly two decades.
• Villain with Good Publicity: He's incredibly popular with the people of Tokyo to the extent that many believe he's a shoo-in to become the next prime minister, with Ogasawara describing this as "front-facing power".
• We Used to Be Friends: This is his relationship with Ichiban outside of flashbacks, even though the friendship was completely one-sided on the latter's part.
• Wig, Dress, Accent: He's almost unrecognizable when one looks at his appearance compared to his old identity, and all it took was shaving his beard, giving himself a shorter and neater haircut, and wearing glasses. However, Ichiban, who is very familiar with him, is able to identify him upon closely inspecting a poster of him.
• You Are Not Alone: Aoki always believed that people have pitied him for being disabled. But in the finale, Ichiban tries telling him that all of the people in his life, Arakawa, Sawashiro, and himself, weren't by his side out of pity, but out of love.
• You Are What You Hate: For a guy who utterly despises the yakuza, he runs his operations very much like the head of a yakuza family, and a pretty unscrupulous one at that.
• Young and in Charge: He's 42, but he's also the youngest governor of Tokyo in history. Though it still fits considering 42 is a remarkably young age to rise to a political position as senior as the governor of Tokyo, especially in a country like Japan where elder politicians are common. It's also justified considering all of the behind the scenes manipulation for his rise to power.
• Younger and Hipper: He appeals to the youth of Japan as a reactionary young man trying to improve the country. Behind the scene he is this for all the political fixers from the game series like Ogikubo, Jingu and Daidoji who controlled the country by using their connection with yakuza and political power.
• Zero-Effort Boss: When fought alone he does little damage and misses a lot, making it near impossible to lose. Justified as being a politician who spent more than half his life in a wheelchair he only has his ego backing up his fist and he's primarily picking a fight because he's that pissed off.

Hajime Ogasawara

Voiced by: Tarusuke Shingaki (Japanese), Ben Lepley (English)

The leader of Bleach Japan and Aoki's second-in-command, who also has connections with both Mabuchi and the Omi Alliance.

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• The Dragon: He's the right-hand man of Aoki's "front-facing power", having been Aoki's main political partner ever since he started his career, even becoming the man in charge of Bleach Japan after Aoki became governor. He's even aware of Aoki's shady criminal dealings and true identity.
• Even Evil Has Standards: Claims that he didn’t endorse Mabuchi's plan to kill Nonomiya and that, unlike Aoki, murder isn’t something he’s into when achieving his goals.
• Infodump: Once the party and Geomijul capture him, they interrogate him about Bleach Japan's history and how he met Ryo Aoki, by motivating him via fear.
• Ivy League for Everyone: He and Aoki met when the two attended Harvard.
• Killed Offscreen: Murdered by the Omi Alliance after they rescue him from Ichi and co's interrogation. He's then reported to have died in the Geomijul fire to create a martyr for Aoki and Bleach Japan to garner sympathy from.
• Non-Action Guy: He's just a politician with no fighting skill. Weirdly enough, he still leads a crew of Bleach Japan and Omi Alliance men to fight the Geomijul, which gets him captured after the party beats them all up.
• Older Than They Look: Has to be at least in his late 30’s to early 40’s, but doesn’t much look it.
• Professional Butt-Kisser: He never liked Aoki, and only got close to him because he knew he was really rich, ambitious and has a lot of criminal connections in Japan.
• Puppet King: Officially he's the current head of Bleach Japan, promoted from co-leader once Ryo Aoki became Governor and left the organisation. Unofficially he's still taking orders from Aoki.
• Secret-Keeper: He's one of the few people who knows Aoki's true identity.
• Smug Snake: Although he leads Bleach Japan, has a slightly clearer picture of what's really going on than most and, like Kume, talks a big game when he's backed up by Omi muscle, Ogasawara is ultimately just another one of Aoki's disposable pawns.
• You Have Failed Me: After getting captured and interrogated by Kasuga and his gang, Aoki arranges to have him killed once the Omi rescue him.

Sota Kume

Voiced by: Daisuke Hirakawa (Japanese), Zach Aguilar (English)

The branch head of Bleach Japan's Yokohama division and one of Aoki's underlings.

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• Becoming the Mask: Implied from his initial reason of joining Bleach Japan under Informed Attribute below, since by the present, he seems to support it enough that he's willing to resort to murder over Aoki's own corruption, proclaiming his intent to carry on its beliefs.
• Black-and-White Insanity: He's protesting because he truly believes he's fighting a war of good against evil. The problem is that he defines 'evil' as 'criminal' in a country with a deeply racist and classist legal system.
• Break the Haughty: After spending most of the game being an insufferable Smug Snake, he gets humiliated when Ichiban publicly refutes all his points by pointing out that Kume himself is no different from those he hates. Even more so after Aoki's corruption gets exposed.
• Broken Pedestal: Aoki's corruption being publicly exposed breaks him, leading to him tracking him down and assassinating him.
• Diabolus ex Machina: His presence in the ending can appear like this. Somehow he manages to find Aoki and Ichiban despite not being privy to the significance the coin lockers have to the former and manages to get away without being stopped or the police being called on him (or at least as far as what had been shown or mentioned). The sequel at least establishes that Kume was arrested some time after.
• The Dilbert Principle: A small-time Rabble Rouser like Kume being nominated by Aoki to run for a seat on the National Diet seems like a questionable choice, and he soon proves out of his depth on the campaign trail. It's plain that Kume is better as a follower than a leader, since he has no political acumen outside of throwing together street rallies to protest scapegoats, and without Aoki's rhetoric he lacks the charisma and debate skills to support his own ideals: any time someone challenges his arguments or calls him out on his hypocrisies, he either flounders or completely folds. For his part, Aoki himself is fully aware of Kume's shortcomings and is merely using him as a prop to demonstrate his own political clout: if an endorsement from Ryo Aoki is all it takes to get an unqualified fool like Kume elected to public office, then even to his enemies, his influence would be undeniable.
• Dirty Coward: He's a bully at heart, and only goes after weak, easy targets. Show the slightest opposition (be it beating up his goons, offering basic counterarguments at a political rally, or simply pelting him with dirty tissues) and he'll run for the hills. Even when he personally pulls off a political assassination, it's a sneak attack where he quickly flees the scene afterwards.
• Dogged Nice Guy: Nothing displayed in the story itself, but Hajime snarks that a significant number of Bleach Japan's population is composed of guys who are desperate to get into the good graces of the female members, and mentions that Kume was one of them. Learning this definitely puts Kume's Slut-Shaming of Saeko into a new context.
• Flunky Boss: Him and his posse are fought in Chapter 5 and 9. In the former, you have to fight one wave before you get to Kume himself... who still has another wave backing him up anyway. In the latter, he's once again fought with Bleach Japan protesters in tow. Not that he's gotten any stronger since the last encounter with him, anyway.
• Gameplay and Story Integration: In the cutscene prior to fighting Bleach Japan in Chapter 5, he goes down in one hit from Ichiban. Surprise, surprise, he's also weak to Blunt attacks when he's fought against during gameplay.
• Go Mad from the Revelation: Aoki's exposure leads to him going insane to the point that he personally assassinates him out of a belief that he's enacting justice by his own hands.
• Hated by All: During Chapter 5, Kume leads Bleach Japan into what is essentially a lynching mob against Ichiban and his party. After they lose, Kume cries onlookers to call the police in his defense. Considering many of these business owners have been harrassed by his cohorts, it's not surprising that no one is eager to jump to his defense. Even Aoki states that Kume has little support within the CLP itself and his election is solely a bid to demonstrate Aoki's own political influence.
• Hate Sink: Undoubtedly one of the most unpleasant characters in this game. Boasting a mean streak of cowardice and self-righteousness, he is loathed by almost everyone around him, is a massive hypocrite that would only make things worse for himself and others and is extremely elitist, to boot. Unsurprisingly, he was also the one who assassinated Ryo Aoki when he was about to redeem himself for his sins. The only upside is that the law eventually caught up to him, thanks to Ichiban and countless citizens bearing witness to his murder.
• The Heavy: He's the frontline leader of many a protest in Bleach Japan's name across Yokohama, coming into conflict with the party several times throughout the entire game. Aoki even makes him a candidate for an electoral district in the final stages of the game, where he competes against Ichiban.
• Hypocrite:
  • Wants to eliminate all "grey" things, and "bleach" them white... how does he do so? He undertakes "grey" actions of his own, starting with hiring people to bust up a restaurant. He also murders Ryo Aoki at the end, still believing in the cause, which means he should have just let the proper authorities handle him.
  • He also has little issue looking the other way when it comes to criminals helping him and his cause as proven when he doesn’t protest the presence of the three time murderer Mabuchi or Omi thugs being muscle for his rally.
  • He's disgusted at any otherwise Benevolent Boss in the gray areas, particular those who run brothel-like businesses, even though his initial motivation for being the field leader for Bleach Japan was just to impress the women of the group.
• Informed Attribute: Ogasawara claims that he joined Bleach Japan because he wanted to impress women. This never comes across in any of his interactions, except insofar as it might tie into his pronounced misogynistic streak.
• Irony: One of his attacks against Ichiban when competing against him in an election is of course the fact that he was a criminal who served time in jail for murder (which he only claimed he committed), while attempting to present himself as a normal upstanding citizen. By the end of the game, Ichiban has practically gained a public following as the role model they want instead, while Kume has pretty much become a criminal wanted for murder (which he did commit) who winds up in the slammer, as confirmed in Infinite Wealth.
• Jerkass: He makes it extremely clear extremely early that he joined Bleach Japan for a chance at morally-justified bullying and harassment, rather than for any nobler reason, and his conduct is absolutely appalling whenever he gets the slightest excuse.
• Jerkass Has a Point: Initially comes across this way, with even the protagonists acknowledging that clearing up criminality and corruption isn't a bad thing even if he's being a puritanical jerk about it. This begins to fade away as the game progresses, and we begin to see exactly how brutally classist and ethnonationalist Bleach Japan's definition of 'law and order' actually is, and how little it actually has to do with removing violence and criminality.
• Karma Houdini Warranty: While Like a Dragon ends with him winning the election and seemingly getting away with assassinating Aoki, in Infinite Wealth Ichiban states early on that Kume was arrested for murder, so his misdeeds did eventually catch up with him.
• Karmic Butt-Monkey: Practically every time he shows up ends with him humiliated and getting his just desserts in some way until the end, where he's a broken madman who successfully assassinates Masato, and even then, he was eventually arrested prior to Infinite Wealth.
• King Mook: A downplayed example. He's fought against during gameplay yet, despite his larger health bar, he doesn't behave any differently than the other Bleach Japan protesters you were fighting against. He's also just as easy to deal with, being easily dispatched within one or two Tag Team: Essence of Mayhem Kiwami skills.
• Knight Templar: He's a sadistic, hypocritical bully who sincerely believes he's improving Japan through ethnic cleansing, mob violence, and poor-bashing.
• Miles Gloriosus: On the surface, he is capable of holding speeches and framing them to make himself look like the good guy, but he buckles instantly the moment someone with actual teeth comes biting at his heels. One instance is how he finds himself tongue-tied and pants-pissing scared the moment Ichiban calls him out on his hypocrisy during their impromptu public debate.
• Moral Guardian: He's constantly preaching to the choir about how the "gray" zones of Yokohama need to be bleached white and made safe for law-abiding citizens... by removing everyone who can't live within the racist, classist Japanese legal system.
• More Despicable Minion: He's far more insufferable and unsympathetic than Masato, being an arrogant prude who bullies poor sex workers and kills Masato just before he was about to turn himself in. Though unlike the other villains such as Tendo, he's not as competent or dangerous either.
• The Napoleon: He's noticeably shorter than Ichiban and Nanba, yet is just as hot-blooded as the former.
• No Celebrities Were Harmed: He's a loose approximation of the real-life Mitsuyasu Maeno, who attacked a high-profile right-wing leader who was exposed for corruption.
• Not-So-Harmless Villain: Spends the majority of the game as an incompetent Dirty Coward that nobody actually has any respect for, only being kept around as the main Unwitting Pawn, and is constantly humiliated in front of the public. The only thing he actually succeeds in is tracking down kill Ryo Aoki after his Engineered Public Confession, though his actions do eventually catch up to him.
• Not-So-Well-Intentioned Extremist: See Knight Templar above. He's a sincere believer in Bleach Japan's ideals who joined for an opportunity at gaining power and status through socially-acceptable violence and intimidation, and the fact that he can be both without experiencing any cognitive dissonance is an early warning about how deeply unpleasant the organisation's ideology is behind its lofty slogans.
• Offscreen Karma: It's mentioned early in Infinite Wealth that he got arrested for murdering Masato.
• Older Than They Look: His short height and smooth features can make him appear to he a teenager at first glance but he’s at least old enough to run for politics.
• One-Steve Limit: Averted, with a small dose of irony. Sota Kume, an uptight prude, shares his first name with the shamelessly kinky Mr. Masochist, Sota Makinohara, and his surname with Toshiro Kume, a Yakuza murder victim from Judgment.
• Politically Incorrect Villain:
  • He really doesn't shy away from antagonizing the poor and disenfranchised (and often foreign) members of the gray areas. Hell, he straight up mocked Nonomiya's death while his employees were still mourning him, simply because Nonomiya ran a brothel.
  • He also comes across as rather misogynistic given his Slut-Shaming of the women who prostitute themselves to provide for their families and even asks what kind of child would be happy being raised by ‘a whore’. He later calls Saeko a ‘hussy’ when she fires back from his insults, which causes Ichiban to snark that he’s not as pure as he likes to proclaim himself to be.
• Put on a Prison Bus: After last being seen running away from his own crime scene with no further indication on what happened next, the beginning of Infinite Wealth confirms that he was eventually captured and additionally charged with his other acts under Bleach Japan.
• Rabble Rouser: He leads protests against local shady businesses of Yokohama where his goal is to instigate hostilities in order to make the other side look bad.
• Screw This, I'm Outta Here:
  • Him and a few other Japan Bleachers bolt from Hamako's brothel the second Ichiban threatens to dump the very garbage that he claims to be cleaning up in the name of Bleach Japan on their heads.
  • His response to Ichiban legitimately refuting his points and turning his own narrow viewpoints of the gray zones against him while serving as his political rival? Running his ass out of there, of course.
• Smug Snake: Boy is he ever. Taking the moral high ground over the many places that he protests certainly doesn't do him any favors, either. Nevermind being a very downright unpleasant person to begin with.
• Speak Ill of the Dead: While protesting Otohime Land after the death of Nonomiya, Kume brags about how the news of his death gave him the feeling of satisfaction that he feels after spring cleaning. Straight to the faces of Saeko and Ichiban, who respond with a slap and a knuckle sandwich.
• Suspiciously Clean Criminal Record: When meeting Ichiban and his party a second time, they try to point out everyone has broken the law at least once, even him. But he denies ever doing this, not even going one kilometer over the speed limit. Former cop Adachi calls BS on this in that nobody can not break that law. This shows what a deluded Holier Than Thou Tautological Templar he is.
• A Tragedy of Impulsiveness: If Kume kept his mouth shut most of the time and thought about what would happen to himself and others, he wouldn't get his ass beat. In addition, stabbing Ryo without thinking in front of Ichiban and a large crowd got him arrested.
• Unwitting Pawn: Ultimately, he's just a pawn for Governor Aoki with no real knowledge of what's actually going on behind the scenes. Adachi even considers him another of Aoki's victims since he's so unaware that he's just a peon for a corrupt powermonger.

Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department

Juro Horinouchi

Voiced by: Taiten Kusunoki (Japanese), Jamieson Price (English)

The Commissioner of the Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department. He was also Adachi's former superior during the latter's time in the Kanagawa Police before he demoted him to a mere desk jockey at the DMV. He would be the one to spearhead the Kamurocho 3K Plan under Ryo Aoki's orders, being promoted to his current position in the process.

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• Arch-Enemy: He's the personal nemesis of Adachi, whose goal is to bust him for corruption.
• Bad Boss: He knowingly implicated an innocent man under false charges and demoted Adachi to a desk job for trying to speak out against it. All so that he doesn't look bad to his superiors that were looking to promote him at the time.
• But for Me, It Was Tuesday: For Adachi, Horinouchi ruined his life and cost a son his father. For Horinouchi it was just another step to becoming the police commissioner. Even when they meet in the ending Hornouchi doesn’t recognize him at all even when Adachi admits he’d been waiting 18 years to see his face after being arrested on corruption charges. He also didn't remember that Masato was the man he mocked 18 years ago at the cabaret.
• Chekhov's Gunman: He makes a minor appearance in Chapter 1 in the cabaret club when Ichiban and Masato celebrate Yumeno's birthday. Turns out he would become a very important figurehead in the story, being the one to spearhead the Kamurocho 3K Plan.
• Contrasting Sequel Antagonist: Arguably to Sugai. Both of them being antagonists who despite not being fought during gameplay, still ended up playing a key part in some of the events, particularly with the respective Big Bads, as part of their own personal gain. While Sugai was a Yakuza who directly influenced Iwami for his own goals, Horionuchi is on the other side of the law as a policeman, and likely has no idea that what he did to Masato would cause him to beome Ryo Aoki, who then uses him as his pawn instead.
• Cruel Mercy: Aoki keeps him around because he loves the idea of having him at his beck and call after he refused a bribe and mocked Masato for thinking his money gave him power.
• Dirty Cop: He's a police commissioner under the thumb of Governor Aoki as well as being in the pocket of the Arakawa clan.
• Evil Cannot Comprehend Good: When Adachi reveals that he sent the media and police the data that he took bribes from the Arakawa family he sputters in disbelief that Adachi wouldn’t do that because he’d be just as poor after and wouldn’t benefit, likely expecting him to keep the data for blackmail instead. Adachi smirks that it’s his victory and that’s all he needs.
• Greater-Scope Villain: His ruthless pursuit for power and recognition would indirectly set off many of the game's events, from Adachi's backstory to Masato's own desire for power as Ryo. Despite being allied with the other antagonists, the closest he comes to ever facing the party is when Adachi reveals to have already exposed his involvement. Infinite Wealth also has him indirectly play a part in Eiji's Start of Darkness, since his connections with the Arakawa family were what he was planning to report on before some likely interference.
• Hypocrite: At the start of the game, Horinouchi makes a big performance in front of Yumeno in how he's not willing to compromise his principles by getting bought out by criminals. It becomes apparent over the course of the story though that he very much is a Dirty Cop and in the pockets of the Yakuza as long as it means he can advance his own career. Adachi even manages to bust him by the end of the game because he found transaction records linking him to the Arakawa's.
• Laser-Guided Karma: By the end of the game Horinouchi gets arrested after sufficient evidence against him was found, with Adachi being the one to do it. Even more appropriately, said evidence was bribe money channelled through the Arakawa clan, the very thing Horinouchi disparaged Masato for trying to give him back at the cabaret club, which fuelled Masato's grudge against him.
• May–December Romance: Would eventually marry Yumeno, who looks like she's old enough to be his daughter.
• Not-So-Well-Intentioned Extremist: Adachi points out that while he might have some pragmatic justifications for being on the take, ultimately the only thing that really matters is being able to profit from it.
• Unwitting Instigator of Doom: His relationship with Yumeno would be the catalyst to Masato's inevitable transformation into Ryo Aoki.
• Villainous Breakdown: After he realizes he’s going to prison on corruption charges he rages and tells the men that he orders them to let him go, to no avail.
  Juro Horinouchi: This is a trap! A conspiracy! I won't stand for it! Let go of me! I order you to let go of me!

Other Ijincho Residents

Eri Kamataki

Voiced by: Eri Kamataki (Japanese), Eden Riegel (English)

The president of a small senbei company called “Ichiban Confectionery,” which she operates alongside her aging mother. When she was stuck at a deadlock in management and thought about shutting the business down, Kasuga encourages her and they work together to rebuild the company. She assigns Kasuga the position of president and supports his management from behind as his secretary. She is usually cool and collected, but can also be comical in that she faints when something unexpected happens…

Her default job is "Clerk", which focuses on heavy burst damage with blades with a chance to cause additional damage over time through bleed. Her personal skills are designed around debuffs and keeping herself alive.

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• Action Survivor: Similar to Saeko and Nanba, she's a normal businesswoman who nonetheless can get wrangled into the typical absurdity of a Yakuza plotline.
• Advertised Extra: Dubbed a 'co-star', but really, she's more of a minor supporting character who happens to be an Optional Party Member. She doesn't even appear in the main story proper save for a cameo in Chapter 5 that introduces the Company Management minigame and the cutscene when she decides to join the party.
• Ambiguously Bi: If you change her job to Night Queen, she has access to the same healing move as Saeko, and yes, she can also use it on the latter.
• Armor-Piercing Attack: Her ultimate weapon for her personal class, the Super High-Frequency Ruler, ignores the defenses of enemies. This makes her exceptionally good at taking down Invested Vagrants, since she can deal full damage to them instead of 1 point of damage.
• As Herself: As the grand winner of an open audition for the last party member of The Heroes of Tomorrow, she portrays a fictionalized version of herself in the game, with the extra bonus of being an Optional Party Member.
• Beware the Nice Ones: She's a soft-spoken, sweet-natured Shrinking Violet. She's also the rogue, dealing extreme single-target damage at high speed with an amusingly vicious moveset, and she's significantly better suited to offensive, front-line jobs than Saeko. Likewise, when finding out about Kasuga's adultery, she's the most unhinged, visibly trembling, and holding a voodoo doll presumably to cause untold pain to him.
  • After the shareholder meeting following Kasuga obtaining rank 1 for the Company Management Sidequest, Eri sucker punches Hosho when the latter antagonizes them. Needless to say, Kasuga is both proud and impressed.
• Color Motif: Grey and black. Her usual suit and Matriarch outfit are both grey, and her Idol outfit has a grey suit jacket.
• Combat Pragmatist: A couple of her possible skills involve blinding enemies with ink, and using a bag of rice flour to create a smoke screen.
• Conspicuous Consumption: Upon reaching the top 50 and turning the company into "Ichiban Holdings", Eri and her grandma got greedy and bought a building for 10 billion yen as the new company headquarters, much to Ichiban's horror. It's probably one of the reasons why she was so unsuccessful as company president.
• Cute Bruiser: A sweet and friendly office worker that can really pack a punch.
• Devious Daggers: The basic concept of her clerk job is 'office ninja', focusing on stealth, up-close aggression, and creative use of workplace stationery, and she wields her sharpened ruler like a kunoichi's tanto.
• Disc-One Nuke: Through speeding through the Company Management storyline, you can unlock her, unlock the "Dealer" Job, and, soon after, use the hidden casino to unlock the Dealer Job's Infinity -1 Sword. With that, you just unlocked a powerful Glass Cannon that, after catching up with the rest of the party, can rain destruction upon all enemies with her best weapon, and some of the best damage in the game. And even without completing her storyline as soon as possible, the simple act of recruiting her before Chapter 7 makes Nanba's absence easier to bare.
• The Ditz: Shows shades of it. In one group chat she mentions that she got herself a Roomba, but she cleaned her entire apartment before turning it on so the little guy would have an easier time.
• Faint in Shock: She's prone to fainting when surprised.
  • She faints in shock when she's informed of Nonomiya's death.
  • She practically short-circuits when she mistakes Ichiban's compliments for a Love Confession.
• Flechette Storm: One of the most useful abilities she has in her default class is to throw a handful of thumb tacks out, striking every enemy in a moderate radius multiple times.
• Food Slap: One of her attacks is to slap the opponents with large rice crackers.
• The Friends Who Never Hang: While she has optional conversations with the other party members she really only interacts with Ichiban for the most part. Outside Company Management, she's basically a Satellite Character to him. Even in the Survive Bar, she always sits off on her own and her laptop and can't be seen engaging with the others.
• Gameplay and Story Integration:
  • Eri is fairly sweeter and younger than Saeko, so she can immediately become an Idol.
  • She's also chronically bad at judging risk and managing money at her company, so she needs quite a bit of experience to figure out how to turn the odds to her favor and become a Dealer.
  • As her Drink Link progresses, the company grows and she gains the confidence to go for Jobs that require more guts, like Hostess and Night Queen.
• Gameplay and Story Segregation: Despite her devotion to Ichiban Confections (later Holdings), it's possible for her to be an employee that considers swapping over to a competitor after a few rounds of business.
  • Moreover, she's only hirable as a manager after you complete the main story of Company Management despite the fact she's with you from the start.
• Glass Cannon: Although her Health and Defense are below-average, she has Attack, Agility and Dexterity stats that are almost on par with Han. As a result, she obtains the biggest gains from the "Dealer" and "Night Queen" classes.
• Hero of Another Story: She's the Deuteragonist of the Company Management Sidequest in Like A Dragon.
• Improvised Weapon: Her "Clerk" job utilizes office equipment as weapons, including but not limited to box cutters, scissors, ink, thumb tacks staple guns, and even stacks of copy paper.
• Infinity +1 Sword: In Business Management mode, where she is an Ultra Rare-tier employee, boasting incredibly good stats for both running the establishments and shareholder meetings. However, unlocking her requires beating the questline itself to begin with, and if you've managed to get to that point and beat Hosho with the much weaker units available to you outside of DLC employees, her strong stats will probably not be much of a game-changer at all.
• Instant Chucks: With a landline telephone, no less! One of her Kiwami actions has Eri whipping out one and brandishing it like an actual nunchaku. Somehow it works.
• Lightning Bruiser: Her default Clerk job hits surprisingly hard for a class that's pretty much a Lethal Joke Character, and also boasts very high base Agility to boot, meaning that Eri is often the first to act in the group and open fights with a ton of damage. This is somewhat tempered by her unexceptional survivability stats, but it's nothing a balanced group composition can't remedy.
• Male Might, Female Finesse: She's the female Finesse to Kasuga's Male Might when comparing her Lucky Punch to its inspiration, the Tenacious Fist from Kasuga's Freelancer job. The Tenacious Fist is Kasuga putting all his weight into an overhead haymaker that stuns the enemy. Lucky Punch, however, is Eri putting proper stance work in to not need to throw herself off balance to throw it, and to throw it like a proper straight punch, and it's special property is a high crit chance (which, in some games, is synonymous with finesse fighting).
• Martial Arts and Crafts: Her Clerk class consists of her fighting like a ninja using office supplies. This includes using box cutters and rulers as knives, throwing out thumbtacks, and tossing ink at enemies.
• Money Dumb: Despite inheriting the ownership of Ichiban confections, Eri is rather notoriously un-business savvy, and drove the company into debt because of poor investments and hiring decisions. Even after Ichiban takes over the leadership of the company, Eri can still be prone to some bad decisions, like dropping 10 billion yen on their new headquarters.
• Nice Girl: Shy, demure and without a mean bone in her body. She’s friendly to Ichiban and the rest of the group (the few times she talks to them) alongside being a supportive partner in the business management story. She even joins the party despite the risks because she wants to help Ichiban out after she helped him.
• Ninja: Her Clerk Job, as well as some universal skills, involves using office supplies as ninja tools, via Martial Arts and Crafts. Namely, she uses box cutters and rulers as tanto, blinding enemies with ink, throwing scissors as shuriken, thumbtacks as caltrops, a compass to deal damage and lower their evasion, giving them massively damaging papercuts, corded telephone nunchucks, and using Rice Flour to create a smokescreen.
• O.O.C. Is Serious Business: When Ichiban is caught cheating by other girls in 'The Lone Survivor' substory, Eri is clearly shown from going from a sweet and kind person we know to downright batshit crazy and intimidating, backed by a fact that she made a vulgar statement before attacking him.
  Eri: Hehe. Now go pack your shit, President Kasuga.
• Optional Party Member: Eri's availability and much of her bond advancements are nested in layers of substories and side activities must be completed to unlock, unlike the other party members who join up with Ichiban as the story progresses. In gameplay terms, this means that many of the standard interactions Ichiban can have with his friends don't apply to Eri^note Her bond can only level up via rising in the ranks of the Business Management sidequest, meaning she has no Drink Links, and inviting her to the Seagull Cinema doesn't increase it, instead Ichiban gains personality points, and if one neglects to progress further in Business Management in favor of the main questline, they may not even unlock her as a party member at all.
• Parental Abandonment: Her mother passed away when she was young and her father has recently passed away, leaving her to manage the family's business all by herself.
• Put on a Bus: Due to her status as a Contest Winner Cameo, she doesn't show up in Infinite Wealth. Her grandmother states that Eri is now traveling the world promoting Ichiban Senbei.
• The Quiet One: As a consequence of being an Optional Party Member, she's barely involved in party banter and can't even talked to in the Survive Bar unlike the other party members.
• Ship Tease: Eri receives this with Ichiban throughout the the Business Management sidequest. Her grandmother is very supportive of the idea, always referring to Ichiban as "Mr. Boyfriend" and later "Mr. Future Husband" upon completion of the quest. Eri for her part all but gives Ichiban a love confession admitting how much she cares about him and want to continue working with him in the future.
• Silk Hiding Steel: She's a very polite and proper businesswoman, but she's got higher attack damage than Saeko.
• Sixth Ranger: Since she's largely tied to the business management side-activity she doesn't really play a role in the main story. It's either her or Zhao that are the potential final party members that you unlock.
• Smoke Out: Her "Essence of Flour Power" move has her do this by stomping on a bag of flour, which debuffs the accuracy of enemies.
• Speaks Fluent Animal: She's apparently capable of understanding Omelette's clucking.
• Suspiciously Similar Substitute: She shares more than a few similarities with Hana from Yakuza 4, both being adorable Action Girls who hold a torch for their boss while said boss is either oblivious or chooses not to notice. Both also affectionately refer to said bosses as chief.
• Truth in Television: Her using Improvised Weaponry as a Clerk, which is stylized as a ninja, has historical precedent. Not only did ninja try to hide in plain sight, disguised as farmers and such, a lot of their iconic weapons are improvised from equipment (most notably, kunai being hand spades and kusari-gama being small scythes used to harvest rice).
• What Happened to the Mouse?: Completely unaccounted for in Infinite Wealth and Ichiban never brings up working in Ichiban Confections/Holdings after he, Nanba, and Adachi are fired due to Tatara's Malicious Slander. Justified by the fact that she was an As Herself version of her actress and couldn't return for the sequel.

Hamako

Voiced by: Jun Karasawa (Japanese), Valerie Arem (English)

Owner of a "small restaurant" outside of Ijincho. In reality, her business is a safe haven for girls who have nowhere else to go. She is also one of Ichiban's first employers and later on provides him with a place to live as thanks for protecting her business.

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• Cool Old Lady: Is kind enough to provide two homeless guys with some work (even if it didn't quite pay well) and even points them to Hello Work so that they can find better-paying jobs. Never mind hooking them up with a place to live in.
• Deadpan Snarker: Humors the 'young men' (really a ragtag bunch of thugs that were paid to rough up Hamako's restaurant) that Kume brings over to her brothel after Bleach Japan's earlier protest by offering them stale crackers and moldy cookies at exorbitant prices.
• Defiant to the End: Averted as she's saved in time by Ichiban. Even at Totsuka's mercy, she wasn't about to sell out Ichiban to save her own skin.
• Excellent Judge of Character: She wasn't completely wrong to get Ichiban involved in keeping The Harbor Light safe from the Geomijul, nevermind being on the money about describing him as the kind of guy who would do the right thing. Tragicially subverted in regards to Bleach Japan, where she ended up buying their lies and sent her girls to their shelters only to learn that she just sent them off to be deported.
• I Heard That: As Nanba said when he tried to bail from protecting The Harbor Light, she's got good ears for her age.
• Jerk with a Heart of Gold: While she might have a harsh exterior, she does reward Ichiban and Nanba quite well by providing them with a room meant for her girls and is thankful for Ichiban saving her life from Totsuka and his posse.
• Miss Kitty: Since her "restaurant" is just a front for a brothel, she's a Madame in all but name.
• My God, What Have I Done?: She falls for Bleach Japan's claims of helping her girls find proper jobs and lead proper lives, sending them all over to the organisation, only to find out all too late that they were empty promises and in fact they're all deported back to their homelands (read: the lands their ancestors came from, as they themselves are just the children of undocumented immigrants and know no other country than Japan) with no home, jobs, or possibly even language training to support themselves. In Infinite Wealth, she confides in Kiryu that she's still beating herself up over not just that, but dismissing Ichiban's warnings at the time.
• Nerves of Steel: Neither Geomijul nor the Seiryu Clan were enough to intimidate her. The one time her nerves crack is when she realizes she unintentionally got her girls deported, and she completely breaks down in tears.
• Pet the Dog: On two fronts. By providing Ichiban and Nanba with a place to live, not only is she rewarding the two homeless men for protecting her establishment from Kume's hired muscle from earlier but thanks to them, she also has a right of residence, leaving Bleach Japan with less leverage against her. As her girls, being offspring of illegal immigrants that she can't offer leases to, are also safe from them as well. At least until the incident that leads to her My God, What Have I Done? moment as mentioned above.

Matsuo

A 2-bit homeless bum introduced unsuccessfully trying to apply for a job at Hello Work, illustrating Nanba's point about the difficulty the homeless face in trying to find legitimate work through the proper channels. That said, his character failings and unwillingness to improve himself don't help either, and he later turns out to be willing to resort to extremely shady work in order to secure easy cash.

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• The Alcoholic: He's refused a job offer at Hello Work because the staff worker can smell the fumes on his breath and he needs to be off the bottle to responsibly work. Matsuo is undeterred by this and is perfectly fine with Drowning My Sorrows at his failure without actually trying to better himself by going cold turkey. Ironically, he's ultimately killed because he tried to destroy a bar.
• Ambiguous Situation: In-Universe. He presents himself as being just a patsy the Geomijul tricked with the promise of 1 million yen to do their dirty work in strong-arming Harbour Light to keep providing them power, but when the Geomijul agents ambush the duo with a barrage of crossbow bolts from a building adjacent to the river they're fighting over (that Matsuo retreated to when Ichiban stopped him, giving them a clear line of fire on them) ichiban sees him running away with a smirk on his face. Ichiban wonders if he was actually a Geomijul agent himself using a made-up story to trick them, but it's never clarified. Ichiban gets a silver safe key off of him in the aftermath of the fight, allowing him access to safes all around the city, indicating resources that an ordinary homeless like Matsuo appeared to be shouldn't have. Even his execution at the hands of a Geomijul officer doesn't clear things up, as their conversation could be seen as an Unwitting Pawn realising that he's in over his head or a part-time agent begging for his life.
• Boom, Headshot!: At the end of chapter 3, he's tied up and executed via a crossbow bolt to the head by a Geomijul officer as punishment for his failure with the bar.
• Brutish Character, Brutish Weapon: He brings a Sledgehammer with him in an attempt to wreak the Harbor Light bar before Ichiban stops him, and later uses it in combat against him and Nanba. In Ichiban's imagination-vision, it becomes a wooden mallet, though is no less dangerous for it.
• Didn't Think This Through: Possibly. His story about being bribed with the promise of a million yen for smashing up a bar would be this if true, as Ichiban and Nanba express incredulity that he honestly expected that much of a reward for so simple a task. If he was making it up, it's a sign that he was Smarter Than You Look, intentionally acting like a simple-minded patsy to get the duo's guard lowered for his crossbow-wielding backup.
• Hard Work Hardly Works: He's a pointed aversion of this, serving as an example of why Ichiban and Nanba's efforts through honest, but challenging and incredibly dangerous work are ultimately better. The duo risking their lives and going out of their way to protect the Harbour Light bar and later on Hamako's "restaurant" from Bleach Japan ultimately gives them a humble room to live in to their delight. In contrast, Matsuo's attempt to earn easy money through shady means earns him a crossbow bolt between the eyes as he's disposed of like trash.
• Strong, but Unskilled: He can put some serious damage behind his swings, especially if the player hasn't gone out of their way to grind the Party's level or improve their gear, but his attacks can fail more often than not and he's markedly a less challenging opponent than Ichiban's climatic fight with Sawashiro in the prior chapter despite being about the same level.
• We Are Everywhere: He serves to illustrate the main threat of the Geomijul, despite them being the smallest out of the Ijin Three. Whilst he initially seems to showcase they have the resources to work through catspaws picked off the street, Ichiban catching him smirking as he flees their fight and some of his prior actions indicates he might have actually been a willing agent himself, putting on a facade to deceive them. This highlights how every one of the Geomijul are more intelligent and dangerous than the more openly-criminal Yakuza and Triads that run the town, and there's no way to be certain who to trust.
• You Have Outlived Your Usefulness: He's executed by a Geomijul officer for screwing up the bar job, the latter remarking that it was a bad idea to use "trash" like him to enforce their will. This illustrates how, despite them agreeing with Ichiban's point about pointlessly harassing the bar for power they wouldn't get in the end anyway, the Geomijul are still not to be casually trifled with.

Isao Nonomiya

Voiced by: Youhei Tadano (Japanese), William Salyers (English)

Owner of Otohime Land, a soapland (brothel) based in Ijincho. Though he's quite harsh with his hostesses, he means quite well and truly cares about them. He is also the owner of a cabaret club that Saeko worked in. His suicide would become the catalyst in the story as Ichiban and his friends would go out of their way to investigate the circumstances of his death... only to uncover several conspiracies and get more what they bargained for in the process.

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• Brutal Honesty: Never minces words and fully admits that he's able to keep his business afloat because he prefers to hire desperate hostesses with nowhere else to turn making him come across as exploitative. While his attitude turns off Adachi and Nanba immediately, Ichiban appreciates it when others in his line of work tend to lie and con their clients and employees instead.
• Driven to Suicide: Subverted. He doesn't actually kill himself, but rather he was killed by Mabuchi on orders from Ogasawara.
• A Father to His Men: Rather, a father to his employees. He looks after Nanoha and Saeko as if they were his daughters, with Eri commenting that Nonomiya cared for her as if she was his own daughter.
• Hidden Depths: Apparently, he did used to dream of running an ordinary and legitimate business once, using it as a sort of "safety net" to help anyone who's failed in life and fallen through the cracks of society. Saeko believes this played a part in his agreement with Eri to take over Ichiban Confections and even why he takes in desperate hostesses in Otohime Land.
• Jerk with a Heart of Gold: As Saeko put it, he was a pretty selfish and cynical man overall, but he still took in people who had nowhere to go and looked after them as though they were his children. It's even reflected in his introduction, where he casually tells Nanoha that "her life would be easier if [her] father died" during his inital phone call with her, but begs Ichiban and co. to help out when it actually looks like her father is in danger. Then there's his whole relationship with Eri as detailed below.
• Pet the Dog: His concern for Nanoha and Saeko aside, Nonomiya's most redeeming mark on the game's setting is his relationship with Eri Kamataki and her family's business. As it happened, Nonomiya is a family friend and regular patron of Ichiban Confections and sees Eri as his own daughter, to the point of paying for her struggling business' loan in full and even offered to take over its management in her stead, which would have happened had he not been murdered.
• Plot-Triggering Death: His death kickstarts Ichiban and co becoming involved in the main, overarching plot of the game.
• Small Role, Big Impact: His death sets off the chain of events that would lead to, among other things, the Ijin Three going to war with each other and the Omi Alliance's invasion of Ijincho through Bleach Japan.
• We Hardly Knew Ye: He's around just long enough to start showing his better side before being suicided by Mabuchi.

Nanoha Mukoda

Voiced by: Sumire Uesaka (Japanese), Elizabeth Maxwell (English)

Nonomiya's top girl at Otohime Land, and Saeko's identical twin sister. Nonomiya has the party look into why she hasn't been coming in for work lately.

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• Always Identical Twins: Downplayed. Saeko and Nanoha are identical twins, but Nanoha goes to no small lengths to distance herself from her sister. This is reflected by her dress sense and hairstyle, which are both quite different from Saeko's.
• Daddy's Girl: Going by the lengths she goes to for her and Saeko's father, she is one; the bill for his residency at Sunlight Castle goes past two million Yen.
• Dating What Daddy Hates: A sororal variant. She's dating an extremely shady loan-shark, and it's heavily implied that she's doing so explicitly because Saeko severely disapproves of the man. Saeko's personal sidequest involves making sure that the usual tragic ending to this sort of relationship doesn't happen.
• Hooker with a Heart of Gold: She works at a soapland, where sexual services are offered to male clients, and she sends most of her money to pay for her father's bills.
• Identical Twin ID Tag: The biggest physical difference between her and Saeko is that her hairstyle is a near-perfect mirror opposite of Saeko's.
• Polar Opposite Twins: Between her and Saeko, she's the more quiet twin while Saeko is an outspoken smoker.

Survive Bartender

Voiced by: Shunsuke Sakuya (Japanese), David Hayter (English)

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The mysterious owner of the Survive Bar, who allows the protagonists to use his establishment as their hangout.

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• Almighty Janitor: Survive Bar has a reputation among Ijincho's underworld as the safest place in town. In Lost Judgment, when Yagami contemplates kidnapping Siren's owner after their meeting at the bar, a single Death Glare from the bartender is enough to make him reconsider.
• The Bartender: He keeps the heroes supplied with drinks as well as an ear to listen to their problems.
• Call-Back:
  • He mentions being attacked by a helicopter. That, combined with his scar placement, implies he's Osamu Kashiwagi from the Kiryu Saga.
  • His description as an employee in the finance minigame mentions that he is fond of cold ramen, which is also one of the items available for crafting at his bar. This calls back to an obscure Running Gag in the series which depicts cold ramen as Kashiwagi's Trademark Favorite Food, originating from a scene in Yakuza 3 where a certain Lost in Translation Pun-based dialogue choice ^note You can choose to describe Kashiwagi as either being reisei (冷静）, meaning "calm/cool", or as liking reimen (冷麺), meaning "cold noodles" has Kiryu passionately describe how absolutely crazy Kashiwagi was about cold ramen to a bewildered Rikiya. This is later referenced in Yakuza 0 where Kashiwagi is shown eating cold ramen in a cutscene, in Ryu ga Gotoku Online which has a card depicting Kashiwagi attacking someone with a bowl of cold ramen◊, and in Lost Judgment where you can order a bowl of cold ramen for yourself at the Survive bar. When Kiryu tries to ask about his favorite food as a way of sussing him out, he responds that he was fond of cold ramen in the past. His Poundmate Special in Infinite Wealth has him cook up a bowl of cold ramen for the party.
• Character Development: Some parts of his backstory gave him a new appreciation for human life. Understandable, considering his past as Kashiwagi, he better treasure his life after being lucky enough to survive a minigun.
• Continuity Cameo: He's still present in Lost Judgment as the owner of the Survive Bar, though since Yagami can't actually interact with him he's effectively a Living Prop.
• Everyone Calls Him "Barkeep": As far as the characters are concerned, they don't actually know him as anything other than The Barkeep. However, his general appearance as well as a major hint about his past heavily implies that he's actually Kashiwagi, who somehow managed to survive the events of Yakuza 3.
• Formal Characters Use Keigo: Always speaks in keigo, befitting his status as a dignified and stern bartender. He very briefly drops it in Infinite Wealth deep into his conversation with Kiryu and talks in a rough, yakuza-esque way, just like in the good old days.
• Item Crafting: Provided that Ichiban brings him the materials he can make healing items and bouquets for him.
• The Lost Lenore: When a patron asks for his bottle of "Legend Malt", the Bartender recounts how the bottle was meant for a woman he loved in the past that he waited for until he got news of how she died. In reality, it's just a fancy bottle he filled with cheap rotgut to make his bar look better and the story is something he feeds to anyone who actually tries to buy it.
• Meaningful Name: The name of his joint is "Survive", aptly fitting for a man who cheated death after having his body riddled by a minigun.
• Mundane Made Awesome: His Poundmate summon in Infinite Wealth is called "Crooked Cooking", which has him create cold ramen in the most over-the-top and crooked way as possible. From ingredients being sent to him in a silver metal briefcase, taking a few out of a safe, cutting it up with a tanto knife, and even having the beef slices going through a bill counter. The way he cuts the ingredients is so intense he looks almost like he's trying to commit Yubitsume.
• Oh, Crap!: In Infinite Wealth he audibly panics a bit when he and Kiryu meet but is able to regain his composure quick enough to dismiss Nanba when he asks if they know each other.
• Supreme Chef: His cooking is so good that it serves as the basis of his Poundmate summon, where he cooks up a dish that restores 1000 HP to the entire party, along with buffing their defense and willpower.
• Team Dad: During the Bonding Events, he usually takes a more proactive role in both offering advice as well as helping Ichiban some aid in dealing with their personal struggles.
• That Man Is Dead: Infinite Wealth makes it clear that he wants nothing to do with his past life and maintains an air of indifference towards Kiryu, who recognizes him on sight but also accepts that he's content with his current identity.
• Unexplained Recovery: He's Kashiwagi, who previously got hit with the full force of a minigun.
• Unwitting Instigator of Doom: Played for laughs, where one of his errantly-thrown earrings is found by Saeko next to Ichiban's futon and kickstarted the whole romance jealousy substory for him, culminating in him getting the snot kicked out of him by all six love interests at once.
• The Unreveal: The game never comes out and says that he's Kashiwagi, but maintains a rather tongue-in-cheek tone concerning him. For instance, the message concerning the Bartender's cooking service calls him a "talented and mysterious guy." In Infinite Wealth, when Kiryu finally meets him, the two quickly recognize each other but also understand the need for discretion. However, a later substory has him telling Kiryu that once he reclaims his name, they'll talk with no secrets between them.
• Walking Spoiler: It's hard to talk about him without spoiling the fact he's actually Kashiwagi, who was thought to have died back in Yakuza 3.

Yutaka Ogikubo

The Chairman of the Citizen's Liberal Party, who has ties to Yokohama's criminal underworld. He's the one who arranged the whole counterfeiting operation between the Seiryu Clan and the Liumang, to prevent further bloodshed from breaking out between the groups. When the Geomijul moved in, he helped them establish their place in Yokohama too. When he suddenly falls ill, Ryo Aoki succeeds him as the new chairman.

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• Anti-Villain: He is a blight on Japanese democracy, being the one controlling the prime minister and creating a counterfeit money racket so he can keep his power. But he also did it to protect those that fell through the cracks of the system and keeping a fragile peace. Seonhee mentions that while his favor to give them a home didn't come free, it was still a favor.
• Corrupt Politician: He financed most of his campaign with counterfeit money and used it to secure himself as Chairman.
• Good Counterpart: To Minoru Daidoji from Yakuza 6, both are political fixers from the post war climate working with a secluded criminal organization and bedridden by the time the game take place. Ogikubo however had some noble intentions but despicable means and cares about his criminal associates, while Daidoji is obsessed with power and protecting his reputation, and only keeps his ties with the Yomei Alliance because they have blackmail material of their dealings; this is especially remarkable considering Gaiden reveals that Ogikubo is a member of the Daidoji faction(or at least affiliated with it); the woman "Joryu" escorts in the prologue is his granddaughter, and Hanawa mentions at one point that he is a well-respected figure within the faction.
• A Lighter Shade of Black: While certainly corrupt, he managed to unite the criminal factions of Ijincho via white-collar crime that results in little bloodshed and profit for everyone involved.

Professor Morikasa

Voiced by: Hiroki Goto (Japanese), Keith Silverstein (English)

An old man devoted to the study of Sujimon, the various enemies and weirdos that Ichiban and company fight around Yokohama. A bit of a creep himself, but is devoted to cataloging Sujimon in the name of world peace. However, he's not that great a fighter, so he enlists the help of Ichiban and the party.

He returns in Infinite Wealth, where he serves much the same purpose, but also serves as Ichiban's ally in the Sujimon League.

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• Expy: He's a parody of the Professor characters from Pokémon, if they were dedicated to bumfights. Being the True Final Boss of Infinite Wealth's Sujimon League specifically brings to mind Professor Kukui.
• Face Fault: He falls flat on his ass in Infinite Wealth when Ichiban admits to having forgotten him.
• Good Scars, Evil Scars: He has two scars adorning his face near his eyes. And while he's rather obsessed with his Sujimon research, he's got a good heart, and carries out his research for the greater good.
• Kukris Are Kool: When fighting the party as the final Sujimon in Like A Dragon, he wields a Kukri and a crossbow.
• Retired Badass: Infinite Wealth reveals that he was a co-founder of the Sujimon League and a majorly badass trainer in his own right. But as the League became more corrupted, he found himself driven away.
• Sore Loser: He congratulations Ichiban for besting him in the Divine Championship. But once he leaves, he immediately breaks off into a rant about losing to him. King tries to comfort him saying that Ichiban's victory was just out of pure luck and that he's the only true champion.
• True Final Boss: Of the Sujimon league in Infinite Wealth. While King is the Champion, Morikasa is the Divine Champion and thus, the final opponent of the entire Sujimon Stadium league, having a full team of level 50 Sujimons.

Professor Okita

An inventor with big ideas for his Roomba-like vacuum robot, Sojimaru. Unfortunately these ideas don't necessarily work as intended. Ichiban can provide him funding for his research.

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• Alcohol-Induced Idiocy: Sojimaru goes out of control at one point because during the invention process one night, Professor Okita said the whole world was garbage after drinking himself depressed.
• Butt-Monkey: He usually ends up getting vacuumed up by Sojimaru, necessitating Ichiban to fight it to free him. He never seems to learn his lesson from this.
• Einstein Hair: He's completely bald up-top and has a ring of messy, long hair everywhere else. He's also an inventor capable of making gigantic vacuum robots.
• Embarrassing Nickname: He always calls Ichiban "Lord Shrub."
• Mad Scientist: He likes to overengineer his Sojimarus, from giving them tank armor to making them fly.
• Superpowered Robot Meter Maids: Making oversized roombas to clean the streets is one thing. Giving them features like coffee dispensers, pancake makers, flamethrowers and the ability to fly is another thing entirely. This man is the living embodiment of "just because you can doesn't mean you should".
  Ichiban: She's not just unstoppable, she actually seems pissed off!
  Professor Okita: She's entered Crisis Mode now, which means her limiters have been disengaged!
  Ichiban: WHY DOES A VACUUM NEED CRISIS MO— awww, forget it! Why do I even ask!?

Iroha Yanagi

Voiced by: Iroha Yanagi (Japanese), Cassandra Lee Morris (English)

A showgirl who works at the Survive Bar, which Kasuga and company use as a meeting spot. Popular among patrons as the “Good Listener Iroha,” she always enjoys listening to Kasuga’s stories. And while she is always a good listener, she can also be assertive at times.

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• As Herself: As one of the Top 5 finalists of an open audition for the last party member of The Heroes of Tomorrow, she portrays a fictionalized version of herself in the game.
• Batter Up!: For her part in the cheating substory, Iroha wields a nail bat to beat Ichiban to within an inch of his life.
• Has a Type: All Girls Want Bad Boys, and she's no different, as she basically said her type of guy is an Anti-Hero-type. Kasuga, however, advised against it.
• Unwitting Instigator of Doom: The infidelity sub-story that occurs should the player romance all 6 potential options is kicked off by Saeko seemingly finding Iroha's earring next to Ichiban's bed. The true hilarity is it wasn't even hers.
• What Happened to the Mouse?: She does not appear whatsoever in Lost Judgment or Infinite Wealth.

Sumire Sawa

Voiced by: Sawa Sumire (Japanese), Stephanie Sheh (English)

The sole factory manager of the “Romance Factory” in Isezaki Ijincho. While her mending skills are unmatched, there is a worrisome lack of factory equipment for some reason. Perhaps because she is a reformed delinquent, she tends to get fired up whenever she is doing repairs.

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• Abusive Parents: Her father sold off the workshop's equipment to pay off his debts, left it to rot, and came back just to sell the workshop after Ichiban gets new equipment for it. When Sumire protests against it, he punches her. Naturally, Ichiban doesn't let that slide.
• Alliterative Name: Sumire Sawa.
• As Herself: As one of the Top 5 finalists of an open audition for the last party member of The Heroes of Tomorrow, she portrays a fictionalized version of herself in the game.
• Born in the Wrong Century: She would have been just great in a time when repairing equipment like swords and armor was the norm compared to the 21st century when anytime something breaks down, people just buy a new version of it.
• Guys Smash, Girls Shoot: Kasuga's weapon is his bat he uses in his Hero job, whereas Sumire uses the crossbow she was gonna show off in order to punish him for being a cheating bastard.
• Money Sink: Twofold. In order to unlock her romance substory, the player as Ichiban must invest a considerable amount of money into upgrading her workshop to its highest level, which can run you tens of millions of yen to complete. Beyond that, Sumire also serves as the person you speak to to craft legendary gear post-game, spending mountains of rare materials and potentially billions of yen doing so. If you're going to attempt that True Final Millenium Tower run, you're gonna need Sumire's help, and the giant piles of money required to facilitate it.
• Put on a Bus: In Infinite Wealth, she managed to get a job in Silicon Valley where she's honing her skills and Romance Workshop has been replaced by Julie's Gearworks.
• Squee: She goes into this upon seeing Ichiban's Hero Bat, even upgrading it for free the first time.
• Tomboy with a Girly Streak: All but a given since she's a female blacksmith... that happens to wear pink coveralls.
• Tomboyish Voice: Has a very gruff-sounding voice.
• Ultimate Blacksmith: After upgrading Romance Factory to Level 4, she can upgrade each class's weapon to the strongest level.
• Wrench Wench: She's a female blacksmith.

Manae Miyakoshi

Voiced by: Manae Miyakoshi (Japanese), Erika Harlacher (English)

A woman who works reception at the Ounabara Vocational School. She sincerely wants to support those who come to grow through the acquisition of qualifications. She has good manners and has secretly won the hearts of many. There are even rumors that some people enroll in the school just to see her.

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• Alliterative Name: Manae Miyakoshi.
• As Herself: As one of the Top 5 finalists of an open audition for the last party member of The Heroes of Tomorrow, she portrays a fictionalized version of herself in the game.
• Covert Pervert: She's a soft-spoken and well-mannered woman who becomes drawn to Ichiban due to his pursuit of knowledge, but rewards him for collecting every certificate the vocational school has to offer by having sex with him in an empty classroom. On top of this, she's suggested to have engaged in some kinky Teacher/Student Romance roleplay while doing so.
• Dude Magnet: On top of the substory introducing the vocational school involving a guy named Ikari trying to impress her, she's won the hearts of many.
• Naginatas Are Feminine: She whips one out from thin air during the Lone Survivor substory, when teaming up with the rest of Kasuga's lady friends in punishing him for being a cheating bastard.
• Oblivious to Love: Ikari, the guy who introduces Ichiban to the Vocational School, is hopelessly in love with Manae and it's implied that part of the reason he's obsessively been getting so many new certifications to get an excuse to talk to her. For her part, Manae is completely oblivious to this. To add salt to the wound, she's a romance option for Ichiban.

Ririka

Voiced by: Ririka (Japanese), Cherami Leigh (English)

A level-headed woman who works the counter at Hello Work. She introduces Kasuga and company to new jobs. A straightforward woman, she will state her opinion without fear, even if she is talking to her superior. However, Kasuga’s “do everything at my own pace” attitude drives her mad.

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• As Herself: As one of the Top 5 finalists of an open audition for the last party member of The Heroes of Tomorrow, she portrays a fictionalized version of herself in the game.
• Covert Pervert: She's a stern, no-nonsense woman who takes the longest of the love interests to start showing affection toward Ichiban. Despite this, her romance ends with her seemingly having sex with him in the parking lot behind Hello Work, by far the most open and unconventional of the locations Ichiban hooks up with his love interests in.
• Defrosting Ice Queen: Ririka gives off the impression that she is cold due to the rather curt way she addresses prospective employees coming into Hello Work. It's more of a case of Ririka trying to work within the means of how she is supposed to do her job, though.
• Good Old Fisticuffs: Her weapon for punishing Kasuga for being a cheating bastard is her bare fists.
• Job System: Both in a gameplay and literal sense, as she handles job placement at Hello Work and class changes for Ichiban and his party.
• Only One Name: She is only ever referred to as just "Ririka", whether by other characters or the subtitles, due to her actress going by a pseudonym instead of her full name like the other contest runner-ups.
• Tough Love: She's incredibly blunt when discussing the career prospects of her clients, but does so in order to encourage them to work harder to improve themselves rather than out of any real malice. Ichiban understanding and appreciating this is what attracts her to him.

Ikari

Voiced by: Genki Muro (Japanese), Johnny Yong Bosch (English)

An enthusiastic aspiring salaryman who introduces Ichiban to Ounabara Vocational School. Boasts the highest number of certificates of any student of the school, a fact he is very proud of.

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• Butt-Monkey: He's a dorky Large Ham who isn't taken seriously by anyone around him, can't find a job no matter how hard he tries, and remains a Hopeless Suitor toward his love interest from beginning to end.
• Crazy Jealous Guy: He takes a serious level in crazy by Infinite Wealth, perceiving Ichiban's every interaction with Laura as a romantic advance, despite Ichiban's obvious lack of interest. It doesn't get much crazier than going after your romantic rival with a machine gun in the face of rejection.
• Determinator: He's been rejected by 99 different companies by the time of his substory, but continues applying to them with guts and gusto nonetheless. His enthusiasm for acquiring vocational school certificates in part comes from his belief that the more of them he has, the better his chances of landing a job will be.
• Fatal Flaw: Ikari is a hard worker and clearly quite bright, but lacks confidence, which results in him floundering when it comes time to promote himself during job interviews. It also keeps him from being honest about his feelings for Miyakoshi, forcing him to remain her Hopeless Suitor while Ichiban can potentially win her heart.
• Grew a Spine: With Ichiban's help, he gains the courage to stand up to his former schoolmates' bullying at the end of his substory.
• Hidden Depths: His many certifications imply many of his hidden talent. This includes a certification using guns!
• Hopeless Suitor: He's clearly madly in love with Miyakoshi and is all but stated to continue taking classes at Ounabara for the sake of getting to be around her, but she is completely oblivious to his feelings. When he did finally confess to her, she turned him down and he transferred to Ounabara's Honolulu branch to get away from the awkwardness, where he promptly developed a new crush on the receptionist Laura. Ichiban even lampshades that he's setting himself up for more pain. Sure enough, when he does work up the courage to confess to Laura, he gets turned down in favour of Ichiban, who's literally standing a few feet away. Ikari takes this very badly.
• Inferiority Superiority Complex: He's quick to boast about his numerous certificates and generally puts on airs of being an elite academic, but has crippling self-esteem issues over not being able to find a job that cause him to struggle during interviews.
• Intentional Engrish for Funny: He's introduced providing directions to the train station to a lost foreigner. While his directions serve their intended purpose, he delivers them in the most stilted, heavily-accented, and hammy way possible.

  Foreigner: Can you tell me how to get to the station?

  Ikari: Go! Straight! And! Turn! Right! Go, go, go! Go your way! Believe yourself!

• Jack of All Trades: He has numerous certificates from Ounabara, which teaches classes on topics ranging from world history to niche Sega trivia.
• Large Ham: He's loud, dramatic, and overly enthusiastic at basically all times.
• Mock Millionaire: A variant. He styles himself as an elite salaryman but hasn't been able to find work for himself at all since graduating business school.
• Nice Guy: While he's a bit pushy and very smug, Ikari is also very supportive of Ichiban's efforts to improve himself through attending vocational school, offering him tips and tricks to performing better during tests, heartfelt congratulations whenever he passes, and sympathetic encouragement whenever he fails.
• Only One Name: His last name is never given.
• Overshadowed by Awesome: He's a hard-working Determinator who continues striving to improve himself in the face of repeated failures, but is doomed to always be out-performed by Ichiban if the player so chooses. With enough effort, Ichiban can surpass Ikari's record of obtaining the most certificates from Ounabara by obtaining all of them, win Miyakoshi's love, and even become Ikari's employer by hiring at Ichiban Holdings. Thankfully, Ikari is a nice (and oblivious) enough guy that he doesn't take any of it personally.
• Professional Butt-Kisser: Completely ditches his usual haughtiness in favor of groveling as soon as he finds out Ichiban is the president of the latest company he's applied to.
• Skilled, but Naive: On paper he has a lot of qualifications that look great on a resume. In practice his complete lack of confidence means that he's unable to land any interviews since he inevitably resorts to groveling.
• Small Name, Big Ego: He's very boastful about the wide breadth of knowledge he's acquired through his various vocational school degrees, but the only time we get to see him put his skills to use is when he shows off his English... which leaves a lot to be desired. When Ichiban overhears him get rejected by a job over the phone, Ikari frets about having his image as a flawless, aspirational elite shattered only for Ichiban to assure him that no one sees him that way.
• Smart People Wear Glasses: He wears glasses and is the most accomplished student at Ounabara Vocational School.
• Tall Poppy Syndrome: His substory reveals that his classmates envied him for his intelligence and work ethic and so actively worked to sabotage his chances of finding work after graduation to spite him.
• Throw the Dog a Bone: His substory ends with Ichiban helping him get back at the guys who bullied him and restoring his confidence in himself. He also reveals that the next company he applied to work at is Ichiban Holdings, allowing Ichiban to finally give him a job as his employee.
  • By Infinite Wealth, by passing a whopping 200 certification exams, he gets a job he’s legitimately qualified for as a Vocational worker. Enough to be able to transfer from Yokohama to Hawaii.
• Yandere: His response to Laura rejecting him in favor of Ichiban? Grab a machine pistol and start spraying bullets in Ichiban's direction.

Other Kamurocho Residents

Nick Ogata

Voiced by: Kazumasa Nakamura (Japanese), Ray Chase (English)

A Japanese-American entrepreneur that is involved with several successful businesses in Kamurocho. He strikes up a casual friendship with Ichiban after teaching him how to use a phone as a thank you for protecting him from some disgruntled Omi thugs. Later on, he plays a much bigger role in the Company Management minigame, being the one to provide Ichiban and Eri with the necessary funds to set up Ichiban Confections for success.

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• Armor-Piercing Question: Near the end of the game, when Ryo Aoki is giving a public speech Nick hacks the ticker behind him to broadcast a warrant for Aoki's arrest. He then personally accuses Aoki of secretly being Masato Arakawa before being dragged off by security, a question that leaves Aoki frozen in both fear and anger and ultimately leads to his downfall as he's driven to personally investigate Ichiban's fate.
• Big Good: Of the Company Management storyline, since the reason for him investing in Ichiban Confections/Holdings is so that Ichiban can defeat Hosho of the Hosho Conglomerate, the current top CEO of Yokohama, who's stranglehold on the city prevents proper business from occurring.
• Bunny-Ears Lawyer: As odd as he may be, he (no pun intended) puts his money where his mouth is as he knows firsthand how to run a successful business.
• The Cameo: He makes a small appearance in Infinite Wealth as a potential guest of Dondoko Island that can be attracted via commercial.
• Camp Straight: He has a rather effete fashion sense and mannerisms, but he's introduced talking on the phone about his expertise with dating women and never shows any apparent interest in men.
• Chekhov's Gunman: He makes a minor cameo in Chapter 2, but he would play a pretty big role both in the Company Management minigame and towards the end of the game when he helps Ichiban get close to Ryo Aoki and to provide a safehouse in Kamurocho for the Heroes of Tomorrow to use before their final encounter with Aoki and Tendo.
• Chekhov's Skill: He wasn't lying when he said he is quite an expert with his cellphone, he is able to keep video tracking of Ichiban later in the story and hack Aoki's ticker to fake an arrest warrant alert on it.
• Contrasting Replacement Character: To Akiyama.
  • For one thing, their outfits are a nice contrast to each other - whereas Akiyama wears a black suit with a red striped jacket, Nick wears a blue peacoat and white dress slacks.
  • Both characters are very generous with their money but in different ways. Akiyama only loans his money to potential clients on the condition that they pass a Secret Test of Character. Nick on the other hand sold a couple of Omi gangsters a bar to see if they're adept enough to keep their business running. It doesn't work out for them in the slightest and they instead blame Nick for their shortcoming instead of realizing that they weren't cut out to run a business in the first place.
  • Both characters are introduced early in their respective debut games. However, whereas Nick is mostly relegated to a Non-Action Guy who only makes occasional cameos in the main plot, Akiyama is fully playable, plays an active role in the plot, and is even fought as a boss from Kiryu's perspective in Yakuza 4 and 6.
  • Relating to the above, Akiyama is mainly front and center for much of the plot in 4, is a supporting character in 5, and is Demoted to Extra in 6. Nick on the other hand is more of a Small Role, Big Impact character towards the end, with him instead being the Big Good of the Company Management storyline.
• Disappointed in You: If you fail to meet Nick's sales targets within his time limit in the Company Management storyline, Nick will call Ichiban out for breaking his promise to do so. However, since he's a reasonable sort, Nick will then weave the time limit and allow you to take as long as you need to reach the target.
• Disk One Nuke: Nick is potentially one for the Company Management side quest. Nick is available early, has some of the highest stats of any of the workers, and is an ideal board member. Because of his balanced stats, he can effectively run a business alone during the early stages of the side mission. The only caveat is due to his ranking, he commands a rather high salary to balance it all out. Even with this in mind, he is certainly worth the investment.
• Excellent Judge of Character: One of the reason he takes to Ichiban so easily is because he quickly sees that he's a good guy who can be trusted to run a business.
• Good Counterpart: As you progress through the Company Management sidequest this becomes apparent that Nick is ultimately one to the Big Bad, Hosho. Hosho is a unrepentant Corrupt Corporate Executive who goes out of his way to crush anyone he deems a threat. Compare this to Nick who not only uses his wealth and influence to help those in need, but further assists Ichiban's business endeavours because he views having allies to be pivotal.
• Hero of Another Story: Is the tritagonist of the Company Management storyline, being the one to set up Ichiban with the funds necessary to bring Ichiban Confections (later rebranded to Ichiban Holdings) from the brink of bankruptcy.
• Hidden Depths: He may be flamboyant and luxurious, but he is no coward. He disrupts a national-level political campaign with his own name and face on the line, all for the sake of his friend Ichiban and the chance to keep a corrupt man from taking power. Keep in mind the politician in question controls a significant portion of the Japanese underworld and has people killed for crossing him.
• It Amused Me: Nick is described as a rather whimsical person according to his bio, thus implying that his continued acquaintance and assistance of Ichiban were mostly because he found him interesting, even more so after the latter proved himself a capable CEO and businessman.
• Let's See YOU Do Better!: In his first appearance, he gets accosted by Omi gangsters angry at how the bar he sold them has been failing. He responds that the bar was profitable when he owned it and he sold it to them when they'd tried to demand a small cut from him as protection money to show them how actually keeping a business profitable isn't as easy as it looks.
• Nerves of Steel: For a rich dandy, he shows absolutely no fear in the face of aggravated Omi thugs and doesn't hesitate to publicly condemn one of the most dangerous and powerful men in the country.
• Non-Action Guy: He gets quite a lot done both in the main plot and in the Company Management storyline. In the former, he teaches Ichiban how to use a smartphone, throws Masato an Armor-Piercing Question in regards to his connection with the Arakawa family, sending the media in a frenzy, and gives Ichiban and his friends a place to lay low in preparation for their raid on the Millennium Tower. He also provided shelter for Daigo, Majima, and Saejima prior to the events of the game. In the latter, he's the one who hands Ichiban and Eri the seeds they need to grow Ichiban Confections into a formidable business to climb the ranks of Yokohama's local Fiction 500. But he does need help from Ichi and later Eri when people get violent toward him.
• Nice Guy: Is incredibly well-mannered and affable around everyone he meets.
• Purple Is Powerful: A non-action version - he has a purple scarf and is one of the wealthiest characters in the series.
• Reasonable Authority Figure: He's willing to help finance Ichiban's business ventures because he knows he's doing so in order to help the Kamataki family, and while he does give them stipulations for his funding it's more of his way to motivate them than anything.
• Red Oni, Blue Oni: The blue to Ichiban's red, at least in the context of the Company Management storyline, anyway.
• Suspiciously Similar Substitute: Akiyama was planned to appear in Like a Dragon, but his voice actor had other commitments at the time. While Nick has a very different personality and appearance, his role as an eccentric new-money investor with unlimited disposable income who is happy to bankroll underdogs based on their strength of character is certainly familiar...
• The Team Benefactor: Gives Ichiban and Eri the necessary funds to turn Ichiban Confections into a successful multi-billion dollar franchise.
• Uncle Pennybags: He's a venture capitalist who is of the belief that profit means nothing if it isn't used to help people.

Chikao Suzumori

The yakuza whose murder Ichiban takes the blame for.

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• Small Role, Big Impact: He appears in literally only one scene, but his death is ultimately what sets everything in motion.
• Suicidal Overconfidence: When Masato pulls a gun on him, all he does is laugh and dare that they pull the trigger, holding the weapon against his forehead. He fully believed that either the gun was a fake, or that Masato wouldn't have the guts to go through with it. This is what ultimately gets him killed.
• Too Dumb to Live: Despite having a gun pointed at him, he only continues yelling taunts and threats at its wielder, daring them to pull the trigger, even going so far as grabbing the gun and shoving the barrel against his own forehead. He had no idea who the wielder was or what their intentions were, and didn't even try to get rid of the gun when presented with the opportunity. In conclusion, Suzumori brought his demise upon himself.
• You Wouldn't Shoot Me: He responds to having a gun pointed at him by repeatedly daring its wielder (who is totally unknown to him) to pull the trigger, yelling that they don't have the guts while shoving its barrel against his own forehead. The wielder soon shows the cocky little shit that yes, they very much would.

Jiro Kasuga

The former owner of Shangri-La and Ichiban's adopted father.

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• Deceased Parents Are the Best: Even though they aren't related by blood, flashbacks from when he was alive showed him to be a loving father to Ichiban. When Ichiban is being told he can run a paternity test to see who his real dad is he doesn't consider it since as far as he is concerned Jiro and Arakawa are his fathers.
• Morality Chain: Ichiban dropped school after Jiro's death and starts getting into fights that will lead him into becoming a yakuza.
• Posthumous Character: He died when Ichiban was a teenager, long before the start of the game.

Yoko Arakawa

Masumi Arakawa's mother, who only appears during the prologue's flashback to Arakawa's childhood.

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• Abusive Parents: She was both physically and emotionally abusive towards Arakawa. Not only is she responsible for giving him his facial scar by slashing him with a pair of scissors, but she also constantly insulted him and stole the money he earned as a member of the theater troupe. She also abandoned him to go live a life of luxury with her lover at some point after his father's death.
• Asshole Victim: She's a selfish, abusive bitch who regularly fleeced her then-fourteen-year old son out of his money, and abandoned him after she got her husband killed by stealing his suitcase of counterfeit money. She definitely had her fate coming.
• Cruel and Unusual Death: Implied. When Ryuhei tells Ichiban about the events of Arakawa's childhood that lead to them meeting, he mentions that Yoko and her lover Tora "fell into the ocean" and their corpses were never found, implying that they were given Cement Shoes and were dumped into the bay.
• A Deadly Affair: She was openly cheating on her husband with a younger actor while leeching money off of him. As it turns out, she was stealing counterfeit money created by the Seiryu/Liumang operation. This gets her and her lover murdered off-screen in retaliation.
• Financial Abuse: Both to Arakawa and his father, as she's stealing both their incomes.
• Gold Digger: She only stayed "married" to Arakawa's father to leech money off him and her son. This ended up biting her and her lover hard.
• Hate Sink: What little is seen of her makes her out to be a woman with no redeeming traits which contrasts with her husband Toshio, who was a much better parent.
• Posthumous Character: She's long dead by the time the player actually gets control of Ichiban, having been murdered by the Yakuza for stealing their counterfeit money.
• Rich Bitch: She wasn't one on a technicality, but she stole her husband and son's incomes in order to live like one. Unfortunately for her, she stole counterfeit money printed by the Liumang and Seiryu.
• Small Role, Big Impact: She isn't even in the game for ten minutes, but if she hadn't been stealing her husband's money, the Seiryu clan would never have killed him to send a message and Arakawa would likely have never joined the Yakuza to get answers.
• Too Dumb to Live: Stealing counterfeit money? Counterfeit money that belonged to the yakuza? Yeah, she should've seen her death coming.
• Unwitting Instigator of Doom: Her theft of a suitcase containing a hundred million yen in counterfeit bills from her husband not only got him killed, but kicked off both the beginning of her son's life in the Yakuza and the entire main plot of the game.