When you spend a lot time studying Yakuza followers’ on-line discussions, you will note that every one isn’t effectively forward of the discharge of Yakuza Kiwami 3 & Darkish Ties on February eleventh. Followers are campaigning for writer Sega and developer Ryu Ga Gotoku Studio to recast one of many actors within the upcoming remake.
Since Sega introduced Japanese actor Teruyuki Kagawa would play villain Goh Hamazaki in Kiwami 3 & Darkish Ties final yr, a contingent of the sequence’ followers have demanded his alternative.The backlash stems from a 2022 report by Japanese journal Shukan Shincho that Kagawa sexually harassed a feminine worker at a membership in Tokyo’s Ginza district in 2019. The publication alleges that the actor eliminated a hostess’s bra and groped her breasts, claims supported by quotes from the girl and photographs of the assault. Following the report, Kagawa apologised to viewers of ‘The Time’, a present affairs program he hosted, saying “I’m actually sorry for the inconvenience, fear, and heartache I’ve induced to you all.” Although, he didn’t specify what he was apologising for, nor verify the occasions reported in Shukan Shincho’s article.
Kagawa’s company later issued an announcement (not hosted), during which they’re reported to have stated:
It’s true that his careless conduct induced displeasure to the girl of concern. He has deeply mirrored on what has been identified,and is at the moment humbling himself. He has expressed his emotions of reflection and apology to the girl concerned, and has requested her for her understanding and forgiveness. This assertion has additionally been despatched out along with her consent.
No legal case was filed towards Kagawa.
There have been repercussions following the article’s publication. Tokyo Broadcasting System Tv, producers of The Time, eliminated Kagawa as a bunch of the present. Automotive makers Toyota suspended the sequence of adverts he starred in and selected to not renew his contract.
Then, in 2025 RGG Studio introduced that they’d forged Kagawa as Hamazaki within the Yakuza 3 remake. A lieutenant within the Tojo clan, Hamazaki is likely one of the sport’s secondary antagonists. In addition to re-recording unique actor Joji ‘George’ Takahashi’s dialogue and offering new traces, Kagawa lent his likeness to the character. After studying that Kagawa would play the pivotal function in Yakuza Kiwami 3, gamers petitioned Sega and RGG Studio to exchange the actor.
RGG Studio have recast characters earlier than. In 2018, simply months earlier than Judgment‘s launch, the studio changed Pierre Taki following his arrest for possessing cocaine. Taki performed Kyohei Hamura, a serious function within the sport, but they rerecorded his traces and swapped his likeness for actor Miō Tanaka.
We requested Sega to touch upon Kagawa’s casting and for his or her response to the petition calling for his removing. They declined to supply an announcement.
The petition to recast Kagawa launched again in September, however the lately launched Yakuza Kiwami 3 & Darkish Ties demo raises recent issues across the builders’ dealing with of sexual assault. The demo offers our first alternative to play the brand new Darkish Ties storyline RGG Studio have added, which considerably expands the function of Tsuyoshi Kanda.
Kanda is one other of the secondary antagonists in Yakuza 3, a patriarch of the Nishikayama household. When he’s launched within the unique sport, Kanda’s solely lately out of jail after serving time for a sexual assault cost. Earlier than he’s even on display, it’s made clear to gamers that he is a violent sexual predator. His introduction in Yakuza 3 occurs off digital camera as he loudly, within the phrases of the sport itself and RGG studio director Masayoshi Yokoyama, “massages” a lady in a room adjoining an workplace the place his underlings awkwardly hear. In response to Automaton, Yokoyama has confirmed that the therapeutic massage aspect is a euphemism, referring to it as “a flimsy clarification I got here up with”. You possibly can watch the scene right here. In Darkish Ties, a brand new marketing campaign outlining occasions which precede Yakuza 3’s essential story, you now assist Kanda restore his public picture.
Darkish Ties tells the story of Yakuza 3 arch-baddie Yoshitaka Mine’s rise to underworld prominence, however the demo primarily consists of a sequence that instantly follows Kanda’s launch from jail. Mine desires to make use of Kanda’s connections to get in with the yakuza households, whether or not which means bribing or beating him into doing it. Mine, briefcase of dough in hand, tails a fresh-out-of-jail Kanda because the gangster makes a beeline for the brothels in Kamurocho’s soaplands. Kanda, upon discovering he doesn’t have sufficient money to purchase time with a intercourse employee, grabs an unsuspecting lady on the street and drags her off to an alley. Mine finds him gripping the terrified lady by the wrists.
“Don’t be like that. I simply wanna make you reel with pleasure,” Kanda says to the girl. “Simply loosen up, and I’ll have ya feelin’ such as you’re in heaven very quickly.” Mine interrupts earlier than issues go any additional, and the 2 combat. Mine wins and palms Kanda an envelope stuffed with cash. The girl is allowed to flee and Kanda rushes to spend his new money within the brothel. As a part of Kanda and Mine’s association, the previous duties you with main a PR marketing campaign to spice up his status locally, by way of a minigame dubbed “Kanda Injury Management“.
Sexual assault and the specter of it options in most of the video games within the Yakuza/Like A Dragon sequence. The primary sport’s inciting incident is the homicide of the top of the Dojima household, revenge for his try and rape Yumi Sawamura, childhood buddy of the sport’s protagonist Kiryu and his finest buddy turned Yakuza 1 antagonist Akira Nishkiyama. RPS contributor Ashley Schofield has written extensively on how assaults on feminine characters act as motivating occasions for male characters within the sequence. This portrayal of sexual assault takes on new contours in mild of the growth of Kanda’s function and the casting of Kagawa.
To be clear, the actor on the centre of the petition, Teruyuki Kagawa, isn’t taking part in Kanda. The villain he’s taking part in, Goh Hamazaki, is a extra Machiavellian determine, attempting to achieve energy by pulling strings from the shadows and manipulating rival factions to do the combating for him. Nonetheless, in each casting Kagawa and increasing Kanda’s story to incorporate a subplot during which he each assaults a lady and it falls to you to revive his public picture in Kiwami 3 & Darkish Ties, Sega and RGG Studio are placing gamers into an uncomfortable place. The petition calling for Kagawa’s alternative has almost reached 10,000 signatures.
No matter its consequence, whereas Darkish Ties is ostensibly a story about Mine and his climb to the highest ranks of the Tojo clan, the antihero is prone to being sidelined in his personal story by conversations about Kanda and the casting of Kagawa. At worst, these two issues blended collectively might indicate that the misogyny exhibited by characters in-game is not simply there in service of a real crime storyline, however symptomatic of a disregard and obliviousness in the direction of actual life struggling.
