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Kanji Koshimizu 2

Kanji Koshimizu was a Japanese yakuza boss who served as Chairman of the Yomei Alliance from December 2016, succeeding Heizo Iwami.

Biography[]

Kanji Koshimizu was born in Onomichi, Hiroshima Prefecture, Japan, and he rose through the ranks of the Yomei Alliance yakuza clan and became patriarch of his own family, the Koshimizu-gumi, which came to be the largest and most powerful Yomei subsidiary by the 2010s. Koshimizu was steadfastly loyal to Chairman Heizo Iwami, who, by 2015, decided to groom Koshimizu to succeed him rather than his son Tsuneo Iwami, who handled Iwami Shipbuilding's legal activities.

Kanji Koshimizu

Koshimizu in 2016

In December 2016, Koshimizu made the acquaintance of Kazuma Kiryu when the latter came to Onomichi to find the father of Haruto Sawamura, the son of his adoptive daughter Haruka Sawamura. After Kiryu helped Hirose member Takaaki Matsunaga in a fight with Iwami Shipbuilding employees at Moreno, Koshimizu was sent to discipline the Hirose Family, but, as he was not one for needless brutality, he agreed to spare the Hirose-gumi from the humiliation of yubitsume once their captain Tsuyoshi Nagumo agreed to beat Matsunaga severely. Koshimizu showed Kiryu respect on their first meeting, and they would meet again when Kiryu was taken by Takumi Someya to meet Heizo Iwami at the Senkoji Overlook Hotel.

Koshimizu developed a desire to fight the legendary Kiryu as he gradually made enemies of the Yomei, and Koshimizu was later tasked by the Chairman with kidnapping Haruto Sawamura so that he would not fall into the hands of the scheming Tsuneo. After Kiryu's ally Toru Hirose absconded with Haruto first, Koshimizu tracked down Kiryu and attempted to force him to reveal Hirose's location. When Kiryu refused and instead asked what the main family wanted with the baby, Koshimizu decided to fight Kiryu, only for Nagumo to end the fight by breaking a glass bottle over Koshimizu's head.

After Kiryu and his friends accidentally uncovered the "Secret of Onomichi", a classified battleship whose existence Iwami had used as leverage over his political connection Minoru Daidoji, Tsuneo Iwami persuaded Daidoji to back him rather than his father, and Koshimizu thus defected to Tsuneo and executed Heizo Iwami with a gunshot to the head in a staged suicide. He later took part in the kidnapping of Kiyomi Kasahara and was ordered by Iwami to shoot her after Kiryu refused to kill Someya. Koshimizu secretly loaded his gun with blanks so that, when he shot Kiyomi, she survived, while his allies and enemies alike thought her dead. Koshimizu would later be defeated by Kiryu while guarding his boss at Heizo Iwami's funeral, as Kiryu blamed him for Kiyomi's perceived death.

After Tsuneo Iwami's arrest for his father's murder, Koshimizu rose to the chairmanship of the Yomei. While the Tojo rank-and-file blamed the Yomei for Kiryu's (fake) death, Daigo Dojima was persuaded to pursue peaceful and friendly relations with the Yomei after reading Kiryu's will.

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