The 2010 Tokyo gang war occurred from 1 to 15 March 2010 when the Tojo-kai and Uenoseiwa-kai yakuza clans, instigated by Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department deputy commissioner Seishiro Munakata, went to war over control of the Kabukicho Hills construction site in Kabukicho, Tokyo.
History[]
The Ueno Seiwa hit[]
During the 1980s, the powerful Tojo-kai and Uenoseiwa-kai yakuza clans frequently battled for control of Tokyo's Kabukicho nightlife district. In 1983, Chairman Yoshiharu Ueno was incarcerated for two years, leading to his officer Isao Katsuragi beginning to plot a scheme in order to rise in the family's ranks. Katsuragi had his sworn brother Junji Sugiuchi infiltrate the Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department (TMPD), putting him through the police academy until he became a homicide detective. He also reached out to the patriarch of the Tojo Clan's low-ranking Shibata-gumi, Kazuo Shibata, and concocted a plan that would guarantee both men's rise within the ranks of their clans. Shibata would plan the assassination of Chairman Ueno on his release from prison on 21 April 1985, with Taiga Saejima of the Sasai-gumi being assigned the hit. Shibata would secretly load Saejima's six guns with experimental rubber bullets obtained from Sugiuchi; at that point in time, rubber bullets were a classified, experimental project meant to help the police with riot control. Saejima would shoot Katsuragi, Ueno, and his 18 officers at a ramen shop, after which he would turn himself in to the police. During the shooting, Katsuragi would make a dramatic display of protectively draping himself over Chairman Ueno before both men would be incapacitated by the rubber bullets. While the Ueno Seiwa officers were unconscious, Katsuragi would finish the job with a real gun, and, when Ueno awoke, he would find a loyal Katsuragi protecting him and would inevitably promote him. Likewise, Shibata would frame Sasai-gumi patriarch Hideki Sasai as a traitor within the Tojo Clan who had ordered the hit in order to spark an all-out war with the Ueno Seiwa and use it for a land grab. With Sasai taking the fall for the unsanctioned hit, Shibata would then rise through the ranks of the Tojo Clan.
Sure enough, the plan went through almost without a hitch. Saejima was arrested, convicted on 18 counts of murder, and sentenced to death, although he remained in prison for the next 25 years. Shibata played the role of peacemaker to avert war from breaking out, enabling his rise within the Tojo ranks, while Sasai was framed for putting out the hit and was forced to go into exile, his family disbanding in the process; Sasai eventually wound up homeless and in a catatonic state. Katsuragi earned Ueno's trust and promotion to captain, effectively taking control of the family when Ueno reached an advanced age. Sugiuchi falsified a police report about the incident, pinning the blame on Saejima, although TMPD homicide department chief Seishiro Munakata noticed irregularities such as how each victim had been shot by rubber bullets before being shot in the head, and how Katsuragi had only been shot in the shoulder. Deducing that Sugiuchi was an associate of Katsuragi, Munakata asked to be put in touch with Katsuragi, intent on using him as a pawn to establish police control over crime in Kabukicho.
Munakata's plot[]
For the next 25 years, Munakata would manipulate Kabukicho's underworld to his will, rising to the rank of Deputy Commissioner. Munakata blackmailed Katsuragi, Sugiuchi, and Shibata as his puppets, while having Sugiuchi assassinate his partner Taigi Tanimura for uncovering the truth about the "Ueno Seiwa hit". During the 2000s, Munakata also persuaded the detective Hiroaki Arai to go undercover and infiltrate the Tojo Clan, with Arai joining the Kanemura Enterprises wing of the Shibata-gumi. He also conspired with Ministry Intelligence Agency (MIA) Director Kyohei Jingu to steal the Tojo Clan's ¥10 billion cash reserve from Chairman Masaru Sera by putting it in accounts under his control through a money laundering scheme, with Jingu and Munakata intending to use the money to fund a private prison, Okinawa Penitentiary No. 2, where imprisoned yakuza could be dealt with discreetly and violently. However, the 2005 Tojo-kai civil war resulted in the loss of that money and the death of Jingu, complicating Munakata's plans. Munakata continued to move forward, using illegally appropriated police funds to build the prison on Okinawa.
Decline of the Tojo[]
The 2005 Tojo-kai civil war also continued the decline of the once-mighty Tojo Clan, which had already been weakened during the 1988 Empty Lot dispute. Kazuma Kiryu, who had been appointed the assassinated Sera's successor as Tojo-kai Chairman in December 2005, almost immediately abdicated in favor of his late adoptive father Shintaro Kazama's associate Yukio Terada, who, unbeknownst to him, was an infiltrator from the Korean Jingweon Mafia.
Terada used his new position of power to conspire with Omi Alliance princeling Ryuji Goda to spark a war between the Tojo and Omi that would result in the Tojo Clan's destruction and the avenging of the Kabukicho Christmas Massacre that wiped out the Jingweon in 1980. Kiryu was drawn back into the conflict after Terada faked his own death at the start of the war, and his intervention ultimately unraveled the Jingweon's plans, as Goda was killed, the Omi invasion of Kabukicho defeated, and Terada betrayed and killed by Ryo Takashima before a dying Goda took down Takashima as well. The war also severely weakened the Tojo, which lost its chairman, as well as several of its leaders.
In 2007-2009, the Tojo-kai, desperate for a financial boost, conspired with the Japanese Land Minister Yoshinobu Suzuki to build a resort on Okinawa as a rider to Defense Minister Ryuzo Tamiya's military base expansion bill, but Tojo Chairman Daigo Dojima relented when he discovered that the resort would displace a retired Kiryu's Morning Glory Orphanage. Dojima's hesitation resulted in his shooting by the CIA, who needed the resort and base bill to go through in order for the Black Monday arms trafficking group to be lured out. Yoshitaka Mine took the helm of the clan in the meantime and attempted to eliminate all obstacles in the path of the resort bill, including Kiryu and Morning Glory, but Kiryu prevented him from killing Daigo at the hospital; when Black Monday turned on Mine for his failure, he sacrificed himself to kill its leader Andre Richardson, ending Black Monday and Mine's own Hakuho-kai. The Nishikiyama-gumi and Hamazaki-gumi were other casualties of this war, with Goh Hamazaki taking the blame for Snake Flower Triad leader Lau Ka Long's death during the conflict and being forced into hiding as the Snake Flowers annihilated his small yakuza family.
By March 2010, the Tojo Clan was in dire financial straits and was in its weakest position yet. Daigo Dojima ruled the Tojo-kai with Goro Majima as his right-hand man, put in place by their mutual friend Kiryu, who returned to his rebuilt orphanage. The retirement of the battle-hardened Kiryu and the death of the money-wise Mine left the Tojo Clan without the strength it once had, enabling Munakata's scheming to continue.
The Kabukicho murders[]
Sometime between late 2009 and early 2010, Ueno Seiwa captain Isao Katsuragi contacted the incarcerated Taiga Saejima's sister Yasuko Saejima and convinced her that he would help her free Saejima if she killed several Shibata-gumi lieutenants with knowledge of his and Kazuo Shibata's plot or gave him ¥100 million. Yasuko, hoping to free her brother before his execution, agreed to become Katsuragi's assassin, seducing and murdering Drama Queen proprietor Ichirō Yamamoto, Kanemura Enterprises boss Hiroshi Kanemura, and several other yakuza affiliated with the Shibata Family. However, she eventually grew tired of killing and decided to seek ¥100 million to pay off Katsuragi.
The murder of Ihara
Munakata grew concerned about Katsuragi's plot to break away from his control, while, at the same time, Taigi Tanimura's son Masayoshi Tanimura began uncovering the conspiracy surrounding the Ueno Seiwa hit. On 1 March 2010, at Munakata's directive, Katsuragi immediately promoted Masaru Ihara to the position of lieutenant within the Ueno Seiwa and sent him and Yutaka Mishima to cause trouble at Club Elnard on Tojo-kai turf. Simultaneously, he ordered Arai - a triple agent for the Tojo, the police, and the Ueno Seiwa - to ill Ihara. At 12 AM on 2 March, Katsuragi's plan succeeded, although Arai's moneylender friend Shun Akiyama was present at both the fight at Club Elnard and the scene of Arai's shooting of Ihara. Tanimura went on to investigate the murder and make Akiyama's acquaintance in the process.
Using Ihara's murder as a casus belli, Katsuragi arranged a meeting with Daigo Dojima and the officers of the Tojo Clan, where he demanded restitution for the murder of his clan's lieutenant. Dojima offered a massive sum of money to pay off Katsuragi, while Shibata pretended to commit yubitsume and added a fake pinky finger to the pile of cash. However, Katsuragi demanded that Daigo repay him either by killing Arai, eliminating an officer of a similar rank to Ihara (the only remaining Tojo lieutenant being Goro Majima), or giving the Ueno Seiwa control of the Kabukicho Hills development. Refusing to hand over his clan's biggest investment, Daigo attempted to search for Arai, whom Shibata had sheltered as part of the plan to force the betrayal of Majima or the handover of Kabukicho Hills.
At the same time, the Shibata Family initiated a manhunt for Yasuko Saejima while pretending to search for Arai. Yasuko came to Akiyama's Sky Finance building under the alias of "Lily", requesting a loan of ¥100 million. While Lily was secretive and had nobody to vet her, Akiyama agreed to help her if she could make ¥3 million for him over the course of three days while working as a hostess at his Elise hostess club. Along the way, he fell in love with her, as she reminded him of his ex-girlfriend Eri, and he defended her from Shibata-gumi henchmen who attempted to kidnap her and also attempted to attack his office. At around this time, Akiyama's friend Takeshi Kido from Kanemura Enterprises, who was also in hiding from the Shibata Family due to his association with Arai, chanced upon Akiyama's stash of ¥100 billion (around $700 million) at his office, and, seeking to rise through the Tojo Clan's ranks, he received Daigo Dojima's sanction to steal the money.
Saejima's escape[]
Meanwhile, on 3 March 2010, Saejima was transferred to the Okinawa prison, where he met Goh Hamazaki after fighting off former Ueno Seiwa members who attempted to murder him. Seeking to use Saejima's brawn to help in an escape attempt, Hamazaki recruited Saejima and also made a plan of his own: to steal an incriminating ledger from the warden's office, thus enabling him and Saejima to blackmail the authorities into commuting their sentences lest they be faced with a police scandal. Saejima spent the next two days gathering materials for a grappling hook that would be fashioned by Renta Kamiyama and used for the grand escape. The two men escaped at 1 AM on 5 March 2010, with Saejima fighting off 36 prison guards. Saejima and Hamazaki made it to the walls, where Hamazaki was shot before the two men made their separate escapes. At 5 PM on that same day, Saejima was rescued by Kiryu's adoptive daughter Haruka Sawamura, who discovered Saejima's unconscious body on the beach near the Morning Glory Orphanage. Saejima persuaded Kiryu to help him return to Tokyo, although Kiryu cautioned him against seeking the revenge against Majima that he desired. At 3:03 AM, Saejima woke up and headed straight for Kabukicho.
Back in Tokyo, on 4 March, Akiyama came across Drama Queen while on a collection run in the Champion District and discovered the murder of its proprietor, while also recalling that Lily claimed to have worked there; as the bar was an okama (transvestite) bar, Lily could not possibly have done so. When Akiyama returned to his office, he found that the Hatsushiba-kai had attacked his secretary Hana Hirano and stolen his client registry, while also "kidnapping" Kido. Unbeknownst to Akiyama, Kido had voluntarily gone with his captors after betraying Akiyama's life savings to the Tojo-kai, setting Daigo's own plot in motion. Akiyama proceeded to fight his way through the Hatsushiba-kai at their hideout under the Theater district, defeating Hatsushiba captain Takumi Midorikawa before forcing Hideshi Hatsushiba to hand over the client registry and learning that he had been ordered by Shibata to track down Lily. On the night of 5 March, Akiyama confronted Lily about her murders of Shibata Family members and offered to let her keep the ¥100 million if she revealed why she had killed them. Lily, while vowing to pay back every cent, refused to tell Akiyama, who was deserted by Hana after the latter learned that he had still given Lily the loan. Later that night, he was informed by Elise's manager that some yakuza had taken over the place, and he discovered Daisaku Minami and the Majima-gumi drunkenly singing karaoke. Minami then demanded to know where Lily was, as he had orders to retrieve her. When Akiyama refused to help them, a fight ensued, but Majima himself arrived to break it up and revealed that he intended to protect "Yasuko" (revealing her name to Akiyama) as he had failed to do 25 years earlier.
The plot thickens[]
On the night of 6 March, Taiga Saejima met Kido on the rooftop of his former apartment shortly after Kido fought off Shibata goons who were after Arai. The two formed a partnership against the Shibata Family, while Saejima demanded answers about the fate of Hideki Sasai and his former family. Kido referred Saejima to the Florist of Sai, who reunited Saejima with a homeless Sasai after the former proved himself in the underground coliseum of Sai no Kawara ("Purgatory"). Afterwards, Saejima returned to Kido's hideout under Theater Square, only to find Minami waiting for him. Minami told him that Majima wanted to meet, and, on the night of 7 March, Saejima headed out to meet his former friend at the Millennium Tower. The two walked to the Yoshida Batting Center for their reunion, but Majima refused to talk about the events of 1985 unless Saejima beat it out of him. After Saejima defeated Majima, Majima revealed that Shibata had tortured him into abandoning Saejima, and that Saejima and Sasai's fates had been part of Shibata's plan all along.
On 8 March, a wounded Hamazaki washed up at the Morning Glory Orphanage, and, while Kiryu recognized him both as an associate that Saejima had mentioned and as the man who had stabbed him a year earlier, Haruka was bitter towards Hamazaki for what he had done to her adoptive father. Hamazaki delivered the incriminating ledger to Kiryu and asked Kiryu to help Saejima, as the ledger tied the Ueno Seiwa together with Saejima's Shibata enemies and Kyohei Jingu, Haruka's late, estranged father and the man who had been responsible for the deaths of Kiryu's sworn brother, adoptive father, girlfriend, and chairman. Kiryu, emotionally attached to delivering justice to Munakata - the man behind the theft of the Tojo Clan's cash reserves and a partner of Jingu - agreed to help Hamazaki.
On that same day, Masayoshi Tanimura - who had been searching for Yasuko to learn about the fate of his father (who was murdered before he could meet with Yasuko after the Ueno Seiwa hit) - learned that Yasuko had been spotted working at the Midori bar. Tanimura went to talk with her, only to be distracted by the arrival of Shibata Family goons who kidnapped Yasuko as they held him off. That night, Tanimura headed to the docks to rescue Yasuko, and, after fighting his way through some goons, he found Yasuko tied up in Shibata's office. As Katsuragi had viewed Shibata as a nuisance by that point, he ordered Arai to betray and kill Shibata, and Arai shot Shibata as he attempted to violate his captive. Tanimura witnessed the murder and attempted to apprehend Arai, only for Arai to escape, while Shibata died before he could answer any of Tanimura's questions. Tanimura then took Yasuko under his protection, taking her to the Homeland restaurant in Little Asia, which he used as his hideout. Yasuko told Tanimura about how she had assembled ¥100 million to pay off Katsuragi once she had grown tired of killing, but realized that Katsuragi had betrayed her. She entrusted the ¥100 million with Tanimura as she headed for Okinawa to search for her brother.
On 9 March, Hamazaki decided to turn himself in to the police to finish his sentence, entrusting the ledger to Kiryu for his use in bringing an end to the situation. However, the two chanced upon Yasuko confronting police at the station about Okinawa Penitentiary No. 2, the existence of which they denied. Kiryu and Hamazaki persuaded Yasuko that they were friends, and invited her to the Tamashiro-gumi's abandoned office to talk about the true nature of her brother's imprisonment, as well as his escape. They were interrupted when Masato Saito and several guards from the prison arrived, and Kiryu helped fight them off before he and Yasuko made a run for it. Hamazaki stayed behind, supposedly to turn himself in, only for his earlier gunshot wounds to cause him to collapse. He was soon hospitalized, with Haruka watching over him.
Police corruption[]
Meanwhile, Tanimura set up a meeting with Katsuragi, promising him the ¥100 million in exchange for information on his father. Tanimura and Katsuragi met in front of the Millennium Tower before going for a walk, and Katsuragi revealed that he had been the killer of the 18 Ueno Seiwa officers and not Saejima. Before Tanimura could get more information, Katsuragi had his henchmen encircle Tanimura and attempt to kill him while also trying to make off with the money. Tanimura fought off the men, whom Sugiuchi promptly arrested. Tanimura then rescued his friend Mei Zhao and his daughter Mei Hua from Ueno Seiwa goons who had made it to the entry of Little Asia. He then met with his department chief Satoshi Hisai, who suggested that Tanimura head to the "scandal graveyard" at the TMPD's Archive Room 13 to find out more details about his father's death. There, he discovered that Sugiuchi had been his father's partner at the time of his "accidental" death.
On 10 March, Tanimura headed to Sky Finance to return the ¥100 million to Akiyama, as he was no longer in need of it. While there, the two men recognized each other from earlier. Akiyama then received a phone call from Mishima, who had gone into hiding since Ihara's shooting and asked for police protection. Tanimura agreed to meet with Mishima, believing that he could set a trap by reporting to his superiors that he intended to arrest Mishima for his safety. The two met at the docks, where their meeting was ambushed by Sugiuchi, who shot Mishima dead. Tanimura, with the help of honest TMPD officers led by Criminal Investigation Division chief Junichi Sudo, attempted to arrest Sugiuchi, but Sugiuchi confidently walked out of the room, reminding the police that they were not allowed to shoot. While the other police were too afraid of a scandal if they took Sugiuchi in, Tanimura gave chase, pursuing Sugiuchi in a motorboat and forcing him to return to the dock after shooting out its engine. Tanimura then defeated Sugiuchi in a fight before interrogating him and discovering that Sugiuchi had been an undercover yakuza from the beginning, and that he had murdered Tanimura's father. Sugiuchi then decided to turn himself in and redeem himself, only to be shot by an assailant in a motorboat, who, unbeknownst to Tanimura, was his own superior Hisai.
The four join forces[]
On 13 March, the gang war escalated. Detectives raided Akiyama's office, seizing the money that Kido had discovered and temporarily shutting down Sky Finances operations. At 5 PM that evening, Kiryu and Yasuko reached Kabukicho and used New Serena as their base of operations, with former policeman-turned-journalist and part-time bartender Makoto Date running the business while its owner, his partner, was away due to family troubles. Kiryu left Yasuko at the bar to search for Saejima, only for Yasuko to spike Date's drink and flee to conduct her own investigation. At the same time, Munakata visited Tojo headquarters and set forth a new plan. He promised to use the police to crush the Ueno Seiewa clan and use police funds to solve the Tojo's dire financial situation in exchange for Arai being made clan captain and given control over the clan's daily operations to ensure that the Tojo served the police. Otherwise, the police would crack down on the Tojo with full force and destroy their already-weakened organization. Dojima agreed to the deal, but, because he knew that Majima would not toe the police line, he provided Munakata with evidence to have Majima arrested on racketeering charges. Kiryu witnessed Majima's arrest while attempting to visit Majima at the Millennium Tower, learning that Daigo was responsible. On Kiryu's return to Serena, he found Date knocked out, and, while searching for Yasuko, he found her, Tanimura, and Akiyama running into the sewers at the Children's Park. Kiryu followed them into the sewers, where he beat down Akiyama and Tanimura after they mistook him for a kidnapper and tried to stop him. The trio then separately made their way to Purgatory, only to find that the Florist of Sai and Ivan Ibrahimovic had been severely beaten and Yasuko and Taiga Saejima kidnapped, with Kido helping Katsuragi in doing so. On going back to Serena, the trio found out that Akiyama's money had been stolen.
Desperate, Kiryu decided to arrange the exchange of his incriminating ledger for the release of the Saejima siblings and the return of the money. Katsuragi agreed on the condition that Kiryu took out the entire Ueno Seiwa clan alone before meeting him atop the Kabukicho Hills. Kiryu agreed, going alone and fighting his way through an army of yakuza. On the roof, he made the exchange, only for Kido to betray Katsuragi and shoot him six times; Katsuragi, anticipating Kido's betrayal, had worn a vest. Kido took the ledger and handed it off to a recently-arrived Arai, while planning on bringing the money back to Daigo. However, Arai shot Kido and abandoned the money, instead taking the ledger for himself to cover up the police's crimes; he left Kido alive to secretly trace him back to Daigo, whom he believed was separately making moves. Katsuragi then awoke and attempted to shoot Taiga Saejima and Kiryu, only for Yasuko to take the bullet for her brother and use her own handgun to kill Katsuragi before she died, believing that she redeemed herself and prevented her brother from truly becoming a murderer.
The conspiracy unravels[]
On the morning of 14 March, Munakata had a meeting with Arai, where he scolded him for not taking Akiyama's ¥100 billion and told him to kidnap Kiryu's children from Morning Glory and trade them for the money. Arai objected, as he intended to make use of his newfound power within the Tojo Clan to seize power from Daigo and deal out justice the way he saw fit. Arai shot Munakata and left, only for Munakata to recover, as Munakata had replaced Arai's own bullets with rubber ones.
That night, back at New Serena, Saejima lost all motivation now that his sister was dead and Majima was in prison. Just then, Kiryu got a call from Haruka informing him of Hamazaki's death and his final request for Kiryu and Saejima to prevent the police from destroying the Tojo and show that yakuza like them still existed. Saejima made up his men to help Kiryu on hearing this, and Kiryu, Saejima, Tanimura, and Akiyama joined forces for one final battle. Akiyama agreed to use his recovered ¥100 billion as bait, having it arranged in a pyramid atop the Millennium Tower before making it publicly known that his money was there. At 5 PM on 15 March, the four men had a funeral for Yasuko before planting the bait on the tower, where Arai and Daigo arrived. Arai then revealed that he knew that Daigo was using Kido as a pawn, and he accused Daigo of betraying the Tojo by selling out Majima. Daigo then called Arai a hypocrite for working for Munakata, but Arai claimed to have killed Munakata to bring his justice to the world. Just then, Munakata arrived with a SWAT team and shot Arai with the same gun, which contained the same rubber bullets that had left him alive. Munakata then ordered his men to execute the criminals.
The showdown on the roof
Just then, a helicopter arrived, and Kiryu, Saejima, Tanimura, and Akiyama disembarked as the rotor blades blew the ¥100 billion into the wind, scattering Akiyama's wealth. They each picked a foe to fight; Kiryu defeated Daigo (whom he had left with a heavy burden in 2006 before departing), Saejima defeated Kido (who had been inspired by Saejima to take his one shot at power), Akiyama defeated the man that was once his hero, and Tanimura dealt his own justice by defeating Munakata. Ultimately, Arai accepted defeat and imprisonment, but Munakata was confident in his ability to escape until Date, traveling in Sudo's police helicopter, scattered newspapers to the wind, each paper detailing Munakata's corruption. Facing the truth and a long prison sentence, Munakata shot himself.
Aftermath[]
The article detailing Munakata's corruption
Munakata, Katsuragi, Shibata, and Arai's conspiracy unraveled due to the intervention of the ex-yakuza Kazuma Kiryu, the "Lifeline of Kabukicho" Shun Akiyama, the bent cop Masayoshi Tanimura, and the escaped felon Saiga Taejima, resulting in Munakata, Katsuragi, and Shibata's deaths and Arai's arrest. The publication of the police ledger created a major corruption scandal within the TMPD as Munakata and Jingu's partnership, police ties to the Ueno Seiwa, and the existence of Okinawa Penitentiary No. 2 became known to the public, while Majima was freed from prison and Daigo resumed the chairmanship of the Tojo, newly humbled. Daigo made things right by giving Taiga Saejima command of his own Saejima Family, while Kiryu returned to Morning Glory before, in 2011, relocating to Fukuoka to work as a cab driver and allow for Mirei Park to cultivate his daughter Haruka into a star without yakuza connections holding her back. Akiyama quietly returned to his non-profit business of running Sky Finance, with Hana returning to serve as his secretary. Tanimura laid low due to his role in the corruption scandal subjecting him to increased scrutiny from the police, and he therefore missed out on joining Kiryu, Saejima, and Akiyama as they were caught up in the 2012 Tojo-Omi war.