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Homare Nishitani

Homare Nishitani (1937-17 December 1988) was a Japanese yakuza criminal who served as patriarch of the Kijin-kai subsidiary of the Osaka-based Omi Alliance during the 1980s. In 1988, he played a supporting role in the Empty Lot dispute, during which Tojo-kai lieutenant Keiji Shibusawa hired him and his clan to take the lot's owner, Makoto Makimura, alive; his fellow Omi lieutenant Tsukasa Sagawa intended to kill her on Tojo lieutenant Futoshi Shimano's orders. Nishitani failed to capture Makoto due to the intervention of Sagawa's hitman Goro Majima, leading to Shibusawa having a prison guard shoot Nishitani and his uncle, Billiken Nishitani in retribution.

Biography[]

Homare Nishitani was born in Osaka, Japan in 1937, the nephew of policeman Billiken Nishitani. Nishitani was a troublesome and belligerent youth who started pickpocketing in kindergarten, became a robber during elementary school, and began breaking into cars during middle school. As a high schooler, Nishitani murdered another teenager who had murdered his uncle Billiken's daughter and been set free because he was a minor; Billiken took in Homare as his foster son. While Billiken was a policeman, Homare became a yakuza with the powerful Omi Alliance and became the patriarch of the Kijin-kai, a family known to be "loose cannons" by the other Omi sects. Billiken remained Nishitani's chief contact and mole in the Osaka police department, allowing for Nishitani to use the local jail as a high-security hideout. Nishitani's bribes to Billiken allowed Billiken to open the Bed of Styx Coliseum, where convicts who could not be prosecuted by the law fought to the death as a means of ridding them from society.

Empty Lot dispute[]

Nishitani at the Cabaret Grand

Nishitani at the Cabaret Grand

In late 1988, Nishitani and the Kijin-kai were hired by the Tojo-kai lieutenant Keiji Shibusawa to use their extensive information network to track down and kidnap Makoto Makimura, the owner of a valuable empty lot in Kabukicho, Tokyo which the Dojima-gumi family of the Tojo-kai sought to acquire to sell to the government amid a major revitalization project. Nishitani dispatched his captain, Ryobe Oishi, with an army of Kijin-kai henchmen to kidnap Makimura from the Hogushi Kaikan massage parlor in Dotonbori on 14 December 1988, but the rival Omi lieutenant, Tsukasa Sagawa, had dispatched his hitman Goro Majima to assassinate Makimura on the orders of another Tojo lieutenant, Futoshi Shimano. Oishi and Majima first crossed paths at the Hogushi Kaikan massage parlor, where Majima took down Oishi and his men and rescued Makimura from the kidnappers, helping her to escape to a warehouse owned by the Odyssey nightclub.

On 15 December 1988, the day after Makimura's disappearance, Nishitani had a lookalike of Makoto's - a serial con artist - murdered, disfigured, dressed in Makimura's massage parlor uniform, and thrown into the Dotonbori canal, leading to the media reporting that Makimura had been murdered. Nishitani then met with Majima at the Cabaret Grand, which he had rented out for himself on 16 December, and he told Majima that he had killed the lookalike as a favor to Majima, as Majima could now tell Sagawa that Makimura had been killed. In return, however, he demanded that Majima hand over the real Makimura to him, as he did not intend to harm her, instead planning to bring her to the Dojima-gumi so that she could negotiate the sale of the Empty Lot. Majima still refused to hand Makimura over, and Nishitani, who had also heard of Majima's fighting prowess, decided to entertain himself by challenging Majima to fight him on the dance floor. When Majima insisted that he did not harm his customers, Nishitani called the police on himself, pretending to be Majima and reporting a "robbery" at the cabaret. Nishitani explained to Majima that he was no longer a customer, but a robber, enabling Majima to fight him. Majima proceeded to take down the knife-wielding Nishitani in the ensuing fight, but, before Majima could find out who Nishitani was working for, Nishitani was taken away by the police.

Death[]

Nishitani after being shot

Nishitani after being shot

On 17 December 1988, Majima, after convincing Nishitani's uncle Billiken to help him, was allowed into the Osaka jail, where he visited Nishitani in his cell. Majima asked Nishitani who had sent him to kidnap Makimura, but Nishitani first insisted on finishing their fight; Majima defeated Nishitani once again, forcing Nishitani to finally talk. Nishitani told Majima that he was working for Keiji Shibusawa, and said that the white-clad man whom Majima had named as the kidnapper of Makimura was likely Masaru Sera, the head of the Tojo-kai's top-secret Nikkyo Consortium. Nishitani then offered to employ Majima with his organization, but Majima again refused; unfazed, Nishitani offered to join Majima in rescuing Makimura from the Camellia Grove inn. Nishitani then called for Billiken to let him out of his cell, but they found that the door was open, and heard gunshots. Nishitani and Majima were shocked to see Billiken turn the corner into the hallway before collapsing from his gunshot wounds, and the guard, Shigematsu Taniguchi, proceeded to shoot Nishitani in the abdomen. Nishitani managed to stand up and tell Majima to rescue Makoto in the spirit of a yakuza, and he had Majima flee as he, braving several more gunshot wounds, charged Taniguchi and beat him to death before bleeding out and dying of his own wounds.

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