Futoshi Shimano (1954-December 2005) was a Japanese yakuza crime boss who served as patriarch of the Shimano-gumi subsidiary of the Tojo-kai from the 1980s to 2000s. He was known as an unscrupulous man of ambition whose attempts to seize the leadership of the Tojo-kai brought the Tojo-kai to the brink of war with the Omi Alliance in both 1988 and 2005. During the latter war, he killed the powerful Tojo-kai lieutenant Shintaro Kazama, only to be killed by Kazama's close ally Yukio Terada in revenge.
Biography[]
Futoshi Shimano was born in Osaka, Japan in 1954, and he joined the Dojima-gumi subsidiary of the Tojo-kai during the 1970s and became a lieutenant later in the decade. He became rivals with fellow Dojima lieutenant Shintaro Kazama, as Shimano was known for his violent and thuggish behavior, and Kazama was principled and served as a roadblock to Shimano's own ambitions. In 1980, the two rivals participated in the massacre of the Jingweon Mafia in Tokyo, with Shimano hoping that the hit would advance his own career.
Empty Lot dispute[]
Conspiracy with the Omi[]
Shimano eating with Goro Majima
By 1988, both Shimano and Kazama had started their own families, with Shimano becoming boss of the Shimano-gumi. That same year, the ambitious Shimano decided to ally with the powerful Omi Alliance in a bid to seize control of the Tojo-kai amid the Empty Lot dispute: Shimano sent his disgraced subordinate Goro Majima (under the supervision of Shimano's Omi sworn brother, Tsukasa Sagawa) to kidnap Makoto Makimura (while initially ordering him to kill her, knowing that he would back down and earn her trust) and persuade her to sell Kabukicho's valuable Empty Lot to him. Shimano would then sell the Empty Lot to the Omi Alliance, which would use its new presence in Kabukicho to flood the neighborhood with ground troops and seize control of Tokyo from the Tojo-kai. The Omi would then, in turn, name Shimano the new Chairman of the Tojo-kai, and he would split Tokyo with Sagawa. Shimano remained in touch with the Omi through the chief of Omi headquarters, Kenkichi Ogami, and later revealed the true nature of his plans to Sagawa and Majima in person. However, Makoto was captured by the Dojima-gumi while attempting to negotiate with Sohei Dojima himself, and was then rescued by Majima, only for the Nikkyo Consortium to take custody of her, and for the Nikkyo patriarch Masaru Sera to convince her to offload the Empty Lot to him.
Taking responsibility[]
Shimano telling Goro Majima of his future plans
On the night of 19 December 1988, after Majima and Sera defeated Dojima at his headquarters and captured his hitman Lao Gui for use as leverage against Dojima, Sera tasked Majima with telling Shimano to take responsibility for hunting down the traitor in the Tojo-kai, knowing that Shimano himself was the traitor who was working with the Omi. Majima interrupted Shimano's meeting with Ogami and handed him the pistol Sera had given him, telling him that Sera wanted him to root out the traitor in the Tojo-kai. Shimano initially considered killing Majima and going along with his plan to join forces with the Omi, but, sensing that the situation was now out of his control, he saved face by shooting Ogami in the forehead and announcing that he had nothing to do with Omi. He then reinstated Majima into the family despite his failure to bring Makoto to him, telling Majima that, in ten years, it would be the Shimano family calling the shots.
Final conspiracy[]
Shimano's body
In December 2005, Shimano decided to launch another conspiracy to seize control of the Tojo-kai, allying with Omi Alliance Patriarch Yukio Terada and Snake Flower Triad leader Lau Ka Long with the goal of winning power. He may have ordered the assassination of Chairman Masaru Sera shortly after Sera announced that the family's ¥10 billion reserve had been stolen, and he framed another prominent Tojo-kai leader, Kazama's right-hand man Kazuma Kiryu, for Kazama's shooting at Sera's funeral in an attempt to discredit and destroy Kiryu. The conspiracy fell through when Long decided to kidnap the young girl Haruka Sawamura (the holder of the key to the stolen yen) and keep her for himself rather than share the profits with his co-conspirators as planned, and Terada also revealed himself to be a double agent for Kazama. Shimano had Terada tailed to the dockyard where the wounded Kazama was being treated, and Kiryu defeated Shimano in a brawl at the dockyard as Osamu Kashiwagi and his men fought off Shimano's henchmen. Shimano refused to accept defeat and threw a grenade at Haruka, but Shintaro shielded the girl from the blast at the cost of his own life. Terada retaliated by repeatedly shooting Shimano, killing him.