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The petition calling for Teruyuki Kagawa's removal has amassed more than 9,500 signatures so far
If you spend much time reading Yakuza fans’ online discussions, you will see that all is not well ahead of the release of Yakuza Kiwami 3 & Dark Ties on February 11th. Fans are campaigning for publisher Sega and developer Ryu Ga Gotoku Studio to recast one of the actors in the upcoming remake.
Since Sega announced Japanese actor Teruyuki Kagawa would play villain Goh Hamazaki in Kiwami 3 & Dark Ties last year, a contingent of the series' fans have demanded his replacement.The backlash stems from a 2022 report by Japanese magazine Shukan Shincho that Kagawa sexually harassed a female employee at a club in Tokyo’s Ginza district in 2019. The publication alleges that the actor removed a hostess's bra and groped her breasts, claims supported by quotes from the woman and photos of the assault. Following the report, Kagawa apologised to viewers of 'The Time', a current affairs program he hosted, saying "I am truly sorry for the inconvenience, worry, and heartache I have caused to you all." Though, he did not specify what he was apologising for, nor confirm the events reported in Shukan Shincho's article.
Kagawa's agency later issued a statement (no longer hosted), in which they are reported to have said:
It is true that his careless behavior caused displeasure to the woman of concern. He has deeply reflected on what has been pointed out,and is currently humbling himself. He has expressed his feelings of reflection and apology to the woman involved, and has asked her for her understanding and forgiveness. This statement has also been sent out with her consent.No criminal case was filed against Kagawa.
There were repercussions following the article's publication. Tokyo Broadcasting System Television, producers of The Time, removed Kagawa as a host of the show. Car makers Toyota suspended the series of ads he starred in and chose not to renew his contract.
Then, in 2025 RGG Studio announced that they had cast Kagawa as Hamazaki in the Yakuza 3 remake. A lieutenant in the Tojo clan, Hamazaki is one of the game’s secondary antagonists. As well as re-recording original actor Joji 'George' Takahashi's dialogue and providing new lines, Kagawa lent his likeness to the character. After learning that Kagawa would play the pivotal role in Yakuza Kiwami 3, players petitioned Sega and RGG Studio to replace the actor.
RGG Studio have recast characters before. In 2018, just months before Judgment's release, the studio replaced Pierre Taki following his arrest for possessing cocaine. Taki played Kyohei Hamura, a major role in the game, yet they rerecorded his lines and swapped his likeness for actor Miō Tanaka.
We asked Sega to comment on Kagawa's casting and for their response to the petition calling for his removal. They declined to provide a statement.
The petition to recast Kagawa launched back in September, but the recently released Yakuza Kiwami 3 & Dark Ties demo raises fresh concerns around the developers' handling of sexual assault. The demo provides our first opportunity to play the new Dark Ties storyline RGG Studio have added, which significantly expands the role of Tsuyoshi Kanda.
Kanda is another of the secondary antagonists in Yakuza 3, a patriarch of the Nishikayama family. When he is introduced in the original game, Kanda's only recently out of prison after serving time for a sexual assault charge. Before he is even on screen, it is made clear to players that he's a violent sexual predator. His introduction in Yakuza 3 happens off camera as he loudly, in the words of the game itself and RGG studio director Masayoshi Yokoyama, "massages" a woman in a room adjoining an office where his underlings awkwardly listen. According to Automaton, Yokoyama has confirmed that the massage element is a euphemism, referring to it as “a flimsy explanation I came up with”. You can watch the scene here. In Dark Ties, a new campaign outlining events which precede Yakuza 3’s main story, you now help Kanda restore his public image.
Dark Ties tells the tale of Yakuza 3 arch-baddie Yoshitaka Mine’s rise to underworld prominence, but the demo mainly consists of a sequence that immediately follows Kanda's release from prison. Mine wants to use Kanda's connections to get in with the yakuza families, whether that means bribing or beating him into doing it. Mine, briefcase of dough in hand, tails a fresh-out-of-jail Kanda as the gangster makes a beeline for the brothels in Kamurocho’s soaplands. Kanda, upon discovering he doesn’t have enough cash to buy time with a sex worker, grabs an unsuspecting woman in the street and drags her off to an alley. Mine finds him gripping the terrified woman by the wrists.
"Don’t be like that. I just wanna make you reel with pleasure," Kanda says to the woman. "Just relax, and I’ll have ya feelin’ like you’re in heaven in no time." Mine interrupts before things go any further, and the two fight. Mine wins and hands Kanda an envelope filled with money. The woman is allowed to escape and Kanda rushes to spend his new cash in the brothel. As part of Kanda and Mine’s arrangement, the former tasks you with leading a PR campaign to boost his reputation in the community, via a minigame dubbed "Kanda Damage Control".
Sexual assault and the threat of it features in many of the games in the Yakuza/Like A Dragon series. The first game's inciting incident is the murder of the head of the Dojima family, revenge for his attempt to rape Yumi Sawamura, childhood friend of the game's protagonist Kiryu and his best friend turned Yakuza 1 antagonist Akira Nishkiyama. RPS contributor Ashley Schofield has written extensively on how assaults on female characters act as motivating events for male characters in the series. This portrayal of sexual assault takes on new contours in light of the expansion of Kanda's role and the casting of Kagawa.
To be clear, the actor at the centre of the petition, Teruyuki Kagawa, is not playing Kanda. The villain he is playing, Goh Hamazaki, is a more Machiavellian figure, trying to gain power by pulling strings from the shadows and manipulating rival factions to do the fighting for him. However, in both casting Kagawa and expanding Kanda's story to include a subplot in which he both assaults a woman and it falls to you to restore his public image in Kiwami 3 & Dark Ties, Sega and RGG Studio are putting players into an uncomfortable position. The petition calling for Kagawa's replacement has nearly reached 10,000 signatures.
Whatever its result, while Dark Ties is ostensibly a tale about Mine and his climb to the top ranks of the Tojo clan, the antihero is at risk of being sidelined in his own story by conversations about Kanda and the casting of Kagawa. At worst, these two things blended together could imply that the misogyny exhibited by characters in-game isn't just there in service of a true crime storyline, but symptomatic of a disregard and obliviousness towards real life suffering.
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