The 2019 Omi Alliance civil war was a civil war that occurred within the Omi Alliance yakuza federation in 2019, following the "Great Dissolution." After acting Omi chairman Masaru Watase and Tojo-kai chairman Daigo Dojima jointly declared the dissolution of their underworld alliances, Omi loyalists launched a short-lived rebellion in Osaka and a bloodier uprising in Tokyo, where they formed the Tokyo Omi Alliance. The brief civil war saw the Tokyo Omi Alliance go through three chairmen in quick succession, one of them being assassinated in a bombing. The downfall of Tokyo governor Ryo Aoki, who had manipulated both the Tojo and the Omi, helped bring about the final downfall of the new Omi iteration and restore peace to the Japanese underworld.
Background[]
The collusion of Japanese politicians with the yakuza had its origins in the late 19th century, when ultranationalist societies like the Genyosha and Kokuryu-kai partnered with conservative political parties to push for overseas expansion and assassinate liberal rivals. This cooperation intensified after World War II, when yakuza bosses like Yoshio Kodama merged the activities of the criminal underworld with the ultranationalist uyoku dantai, the unofficial paramilitaries of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP). This yakuza-rightist nexus persisted into the 21st century, even as international criminal organizations like the American Mafia and the Russian Mafia were brought to heel by their respective governments. In the city of Yokohama, for instance, LDP representative and party chairman Yutaka Ogikubo colluded with the "Ijin Three" - the Seiryu-kai yakuza clan, the Geomijul Korean mafia, and the Chinese Yokohama Liumang triad - to counterfeit money both to bolster his financial and political power and to ensure that Yokohama's gangs cooperated rather than warred with each other. From the 1990s into the early 2000s, Japanese politician Kyohei Jingu manipulated the Tojo-kai into laundering his money and helping his political ambitions until he died in an explosion at the top of the Millennium Tower in 2005. In 2009, the Japanese government partnered with the Tojo Clan to secure valuable Okinawa real estate, purportedly for the expansion of an American military base or the development of a casino, but truly to lure out the Black Monday arms trafficking syndicate. Tojo chairman Daigo Dojima was shot and nearly killed during this crisis, and the next several years saw corrupt government and law enforcement officials attempt to manipulate the yakuza to their will. As anti-yakuza laws strengthened, the power of Japanese organized crime was transformed into a pawn for LDP politicians.
This trend came to a head in 2017, when right-wing populist politician Ryo Aoki was elected Governor of Tokyo. Secretly the adoptive son of Tojo-kai officer Masumi Arakawa, Aoki campaigned on a nativist, anti-corruption, and anti-vice platform that he had propagated through his Bleach Japan non-profit organization. As Governor, Aoki utilized his father's financial power to bribe TMPD superintendent Juro Horinouchi into assisting him as he cracked down on the Tojo-kai. Aoki blackmailed his father into supplying him with intelligence that could cripple the Tojo and enable the Kansai-based Omi Alliance to move into Tokyo's Kabukicho district, the former heartland of the Tojo Clan. By then, however, Dojima, acting Omi chairman Masaru Watase, and Arakawa himself had already decided that the age of the yakuza had come to an end, and they colluded to dissolve both the Tojo and Omi rather than allow for politicians to manipulate them. Dojima consented to Arakawa selling out the Tojo and defecting to the Omi, while Watase anticipated that an Omi invasion of Tokyo would leave the alliance thinly-spread and unable to resist a dissolution.
In 2019, as Aoki maneuvered to become LDP chairman through exposing Ogikubo's ties to the Ijin Three, Arakawa, Dojima, and the imprisoned Watase's plan was set in motion. Ichiban Kasuga, Arakawa's illegitimate son and his former underling, attempted to contact Arakawa on his release from prison after 18 years, only for Arakawa to shoot him, leave a bill counterfeited by the Ijin Three in his coat pocket, and dump him in Yokohama's Isezakicho neighborhood. This bill had the hidden purpose of serving as a letter of introduction to the Seiryu-kai, and Kasuga eventually came to ally himself with the Ijin Three as they resisted an attempt by the ambitious Liumang lieutenant Akira Mabuchi to trigger a gang war between the Ijin Three, invite an Omi invasion, and seize power for himself. Although the Omi were able to temporarily knock out the Geomijul's counterfeiting and surveillance networks, and while up to a third of the Seiryu Clan defected to the Omi, the Omi failed to completely conquer Yokohama. Aoki was still able to uncover evidence of the counterfeiting operation through the treachery of Kasuga's friend Yu Nanba and the activities of the local Bleach Japan chapter, headed by Sota Kume, and he blackmailed the prime minister into forcing Ogikubo to step down as party chair and to call snap elections. He also murdered Bleach Japan co-founder Hajime Ogasawara and blamed his death on the Geomijul, bolstering Bleach Japan's popularity and that of the LDP.
As Aoki's plot progressed, Arakawa had his underling Mitsuo Yasumura contact Kasuga and request his aid in safeguarding the upcoming joint dissolution of the Omi and Tojo. The dissolution was to take place at a ceremony celebrating the release of acting Omi chairman Watase from prison. Watase concurrently had Watase-gumi patriarch Yuki Tsuruno drag Kazuma Kiryu out of his secret service for the Daidoji Faction and employ him to assassinate Homare Nishitani III, the loose-cannon patriarch of the Kijin-kai, who was likely to oppose the dissolution. Kiryu reluctantly helped Tsuruno and Watase-gumi captain Kosei Shishido in tracking down Nishitani, but Shishido, privately opposing the Omi's dissolution, faked Nishitani's death, plotting to resist the dissolution at the ceremony.
War[]
The Great Dissolution[]
Shishido confronting Watase
On the day of Watase's release, the chairman first visited a construction site where he would change his clothing and prepare for the ceremony. Shishido and Nishitani, secretly in league, filmed Watase discussing the looming dissolution with Kiryu as proof of Watase's "treason" before attempting to assassinate both men. Kiryu was able to fight off the Kijin-kai rebels and seemingly kill Shishido, while Nishitani was left chained to a pole at the construction site. Watase was wounded by Nishitani during the fight, taking a blade to the gut, but he concealed the wound with the help of Kiryu's associate Akame and proceeded on to the ceremony. Nishitani would be abducted by the Daidoji Faction and pressed into their service as a secret agent, while Shishido, who survived, planned to ambush the dissolution ceremony and foil Watase and Dojima's plot.
Watase then drove to the Omi headquarters, where Arakawa had welcomed Kasuga and his party of friends as his guests, to the Ryudo-kai patriarch Yosuke Tendo's chagrin. There, Watase read a brief declaration to be issued to the police department in which he apologized for the Omi's terrorizing of Kansai for a century and announced that he and the chairman had decided to immediately disband the Omi Alliance. An uproar broke out in the crowd, even more so as Tojo chairman Daigo Dojima emerged and added that the Tojo Clan was also dissolving. A brawl broke out between the rebellious patriarchs and the supporters of the chairmen, who included Dojima's former lieutenants Goro Majima and Taiga Saejima, Kiryu (going undercover as one of Dojima's guards), Kasuga's party, and the ambitious Tendo. While Kasuga and his friends defeated the patriarchs in the great hall, Kiryu defeated those in the hallway and in the courtyard. There, Shishido confronted Kiryu, sword in hand, and Kiryu overcame Shishido after a grueling battle. Shishido was, too, abducted by the Daidoji, and the initial Omi uprising was defeated.
The shift to Tokyo[]
The "Great Dissolution," as it came to be known, made nationwide news and infuriated the Omi patriarchs who still dominated the Tokyo underworld. Omi loyalists like Jo Sawashiro, Reiji Ishioda, and Yosuke Tendo each remained committed to carrying on the Omi name. Tendo beat Ishioda to murdering Masumi Arakawa as a means of gaining favor in the eyes of Aoki, who had counted on the Omi Alliance's monopoly on power to further his political goals. However, Tendo laid low as Sawashiro and Ishioda vied for control over the remaining Omi remnants, which consolidated into the Tokyo Omi Alliance. Assassination attempts on Watase and Dojima were thwarted by Majima and Saejima, and Omi loyalists in Osaka were quickly suppressed.
The conflict thus shifted to Kanto, where the other half of the Omi Alliance had entrenched itself. In addition to helping protect the Great Dissolution, Kasuga also challenged Aoki through running for the House of Representatives in Kanagawa Prefecture's 2nd district, challenging Bleach Japan-LDP candidate Sota Kume in a bid to draw Aoki out. Though Kasuga received the support of the Seiryu Clan and the disenfranchised people of Yokohama (including its sex workers, homeless, and immigrants), his candidacy was regarded as a longshot bid due to his criminal record and the surging popularity of Aoki, Bleach Japan, and Kume. Aoki ordered Sawashiro to assassinate Kasuga's chief backer, Seiryu Clan chairman Ryuhei Hoshino, as a show of loyalty. Sawashiro succeeded, but, full of remorse, he agreed to surrender to the police after Kasuga caught up to him at the Seiryu Clan headquarters and defeated him. Before surrendering, Sawashiro revealed that he was not responsible for Arakawa's death, instead accusing Ishioda of pulling the trigger.
Aoki made Ishioda more accessible to Kasuga's vengeance when he sent the new Tokyo Omi chairman to Yokohama with the assassin Mirror Face, planning to assassinate Sawashiro in prison. Kasuga and his friends stormed Ishioda's hideout in the Bar District of Isezakicho and defeated Mirror Face and Ishioda in a brawl. However, Tendo, who had quietly waited for a chance to seize power, had planted a bomb under Ishioda's desk and detonated it as Kasuga interrogated the defeated patriarch. Ishioda revealed Tendo's responsibility for Arakawa's death before being killed in the ensuing explosion, which made the news as another stunning incident from the gang war.
Tendo took over as chairman of the Tokyo Omi Alliance, which continued to control the capital as Aoki and the LDP appeared poised to deliver the prime minister a two-thirds majority in the National Diet. Abandoning the campaign trail, Kasuga and his party traveled to Kabukicho to confront Aoki and Tendo. Kasuga approached Aoki at a campaign rally, ostensibly to shake his hand as was customary for political rivals, but truly to warn him of an incriminating recording in the Millennium Tower that would link Aoki to the recent series of gangland killings. Although the recording did not exist, Kasuga predicted that Aoki would send Tendo and his crew to scour the building for it, giving Kasuga the perfect chance to confront the new Omi leader. Kasuga and his friends stormed the tower on election night, fighting their way through the Tokyo Omi Alliance and ultimately facing Tendo himself. After a tough fight, Tendo was knocked out by Kasuga. Kasuga and his friends persuaded Mirror Face, who was nearly killed by Tendo's bomb in Yokohama, to impersonate Tendo as they played dead on the floor. Meanwhile, Kasuga's friend Nick Ogata confronted Aoki at the election party, where a news ticker revealed that an arrest warrant had been issued for Aoki over his suspected involvement in gang killings; Ogata revealed Aoki's true name and asked if he was truly a yakuza. Aoki promptly left the LDP's election celebration to investigate what had happened at the tower, and, apparently seeing Tendo standing over his slain rivals, Aoki began to give orders for the murder of the person who had arranged for the news ticker to be displayed at the event, as well as for his remaining rivals. Kasuga's friends secretly recorded the interaction before confronting Aoki about it; Mirror Face then revealed that the real Tendo was unconscious behind a desk. Aoki, determined to prevent the recording from becoming public, sent his security guards against Kasuga and his friends, but Kasuga defeated them and then the governor himself. Kasuga's friends published the recording online, soiling the LDP's election victory and causing public opinion to turn against Aoki.
Shortly after, Horinouchi's policemen arrived in the tower, initially to help the governor against his assailants. When Kasuga presented the police with the incriminating video and the truth about Aoki's criminality, the governor took a policeman hostage and fled the building, walking through Kabukicho's streets as electronic billboards shared the video of Aoki ordering the deaths of his rivals to a yakuza boss. Kasuga caught up with Aoki at the Shinjuku Station coin lockers where both of them had been born, attempting to persuade Aoki to reclaim his humanity, start from scratch at rock bottom, and accept him as a brother once again. Aoki, initially callous, became suicidal upon realizing that he had taken the love of his adoptive father Masumi Arakawa, his loyal follower Sawashiro, and his former caretaker Kasuga for granted, but Kasuga ultimately persuaded him to turn himself in. Before Aoki could do so, an insane Kume charged up to him and fatally stabbed him, promising that good would still prevail in Japan, even if the founder of Bleach Japan turned out to be a fraud. Kume was arrested shortly after, while Aoki died in Kasuga's arms.
Aftermath[]
The deaths and arrests of the leaders of the Tokyo Omi Alliance, the Great Dissolution, and the downfall of the scheming Tokyo governor Ryo Aoki, brought an end to the major yakuza syndicates of Japan. Horinouchi and several high-ranking public servants would themselves be arrested after computer files found in the Millennium Tower listed them as the recipients of massive bribes from the Arakawa-gumi at the time of the Kabukicho 3K Plan. Watase and Dojima offered employment to several ex-yakuza through a private security company founded in Osaka, offering them an avenue out of the criminal life.
Although Bleach Japan was discredited and the opponents of the Great Dissolution dealt with, lingering issues would rear their heads years later. Arakawa's illegitimate son Masataka Ebina, who resented his biological father and became a bureaucrat within the Tokyo police, was devastated at the public's acceptance of ex-yakuza as civilians and decided to infiltrate the Seiryu-kai, which had been greatly weakened by the Yokohama gang war and Hoshino's death. Ebina became chairman of the clan on Mamoru Takabe's arrest in 2021, and he allied with Hawaii cult leader Bryce Fairchild in order to hire former yakuza on the radioactive Nele Island, where they would die excruciating deaths from cancer. Kasuga's return to Hawaii to search for his long-lost mother Akane Kishida, masterminded by Ebina and Fairchild to draw out her ward, the rightful heir to Fairchild's Palekana cult, drew him into yet another conspiracy that he and Sawashiro, released from prison and recruited into Ebina's Seiryu-kai, would work together with Kiryu and the leaders of the Tojo Clan (whose security company shut down under media scrutiny about its ex-yakuza membership) to stop. Sawashiro, Kiryu, and the former Tojo leadership conspired to bring about a Second Great Dissolution, while Ebina disbanded the Seiryu-kai and reformed Bleach Japan. Ultimately, Kasuga and his friends utilized the Tatara Channel to expose the environmental hazards on Nele Island and bring about the discrediting of the politically-powerful Palekana cult, while Kiryu's defeat of Ebina thwarted Bleach Japan's reformation and enabled additional yakuza families to peaceably dissolve.