Keiji Shibusawa (born 1940) was a Japanese yakuza crime boss, a lieutenant of the Tokyo-based Dojima-gumi family of the Tojo-kai clan, the boss of the Shibusawa-gumi subsidiary of the Dojima-gumi, and briefly captain (heir) of the Dojima-gumi. Shibusawa was responsible for several murders as the result of his ambition to become a powerful leader of the underworld, an ambition which developed after his father, a political aide, killed himself after taking the fall for his boss' corruption. Shibusawa's attempt to wrest power from Kazama-gumi boss Shintaro Kazama would ultimately be foiled by Kazuma Kiryu, and Shibusawa and his fellow lieutenant Daisaku Kuze were eventually arrested for their roles in the violent "Empty Lot" dispute of December 1988.
Biography[]
Keiji Shibusawa was born in Tokyo, Japan in 1940, the son of a political aide. He was initially a politically-inclined youth who aimed to enter politics like his father, but his father took the fall for his boss and committed suicide shortly thereafter, leading to Keiji giving up his ambitions of entering politics and instead becoming involved with the Tojo-kai yakuza clan. He became captain of the Shibusawa-gumi subsdidiary of the Dojima-gumi family, one of the Tojo-kai's subgroups.
Empty lot dispute[]
Shibusawa in 1988
After Captain Shintaro Kazama's arrest (as part of a conspiracy by Dojima-gumi patriarch Sohei Dojima and lieutenant Daisaku Kuze), Shibusawa and his oath brothers and fellow lieutenants Kuze and Hiroki Awano competed for Dojima's favor, as Dojima promised that the lieutenant who was able to secure the empty lot in Kabukicho for him would be granted the Kazama-gumi subsidiary. Shibusawa attempted to kidnap the empty lot's owner, Makoto Makamura, but his employee Jun Oda failed in his attempt to capture her, leading to Shibusawa having him killed. He later hired the Kijin-kai subsidiary of the Omi Alliance to kidnap Makoto, but Goro Majima foiled this plot in Dotonbori, Osaka. Shibusawa retaliated by having Kijin-kai boss Homare Nishitani murdered in prison. He then hired Lao Gui, the most effective hitman in Asia, to kidnap Makamura's brother Tetsu Tachibana, and Shibusawa handed Tachibana over to Kuze's Kenno-kai family for interrogation. Kuze's henchman Gengyo Yoneda tortured Tachibana to death against Kuze's orders, leading to Yoneda's own execution.
Power grab and defeat[]
Kiryu confronting a wounded Shibusawa
Shibusawa also succeeded in having Makoto kidnapped as she met with Dojima at the Sebastian Building in Roppongi, and Dojima decided to reward Shibusawa with the captaincy of the Kazama-gumi, angering Awano. Shibusawa then masterminded a purge of the Kazama-gumi, Nikkyo Consortium, and other Tojo-kai groups and allies to consolidate the Dojima-gumi's power, and Kuze was sent to bomb the Kazama-gumi office as he led an attack on the Nikkyo Consortium's yacht, the Shibaura. Kiryu, Akira Nishikiyama, and Osamu Kashiwagi foiled Shibusawa's attempted purge of the Nikkyo Consortium, and, during his showdown with Kiryu, Shibusawa admitted that he had engineered Kazama's downfall in order to prove himself better than Kazama, obtain the power which he had sought since his father's suicide, and his desire to build a legend around himself. Kiryu defeated Shibusawa in the ensuing fistfight, beating him to a bloody pulp, but Nishikiyama convinced Kiryu not to kill Shibusawa, and Shibusawa and Kuze were both arrested for their crimes.