
Makoto Date (1964-) was a Japanese detective who worked for the Criminal Invesgiation Division of the Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department from the 1990s to 2010s.
Biography[]
Makoto Date was born in Tokyo, Japan in 1964, and he joined the Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department in 1991 and was partnered with Jiro Kawara. He lost his respect for Kawara after watching the latter single-handedly murder several undocumented immigrants, but he succeeded in gathering enough evidence to expel another detective for exchanging information for bribes. Date became a workaholic, causing his wife and daughter Saya to leave him.
On 1 October 1995, Date interrogated the famed yakuza Kazuma Kiryu after Kiryu was arrested for the murder of Dojima-gumi patriarch Sohei Dojima. Date did not believe Kiryu's story that he murdered Dojima during a fight over money, as he knew that Kiryu had previously been on track to start his own family within the Tojo-kai, and he suggested to his colleagues that Kiryu was covering for someone. Even after Kiryu's incarceration, Date insisted on continuing to investigate the case, leading to his superiors transferring him to the Organized Crime Unit. Date decided to forsake his career to spring Kiryu from jail, as he sought to use Kiryu to find the real culprit behind Dojima's murder, and to put an end to the violent factional infighting within the Tojo-kai. Over time, Date became one of Kiryu's best friends, and he ultimately participated in Kiryu's showdown with Kyohei Jingu at the Millennium Tower. After the deaths of Akira Nishikiyama and Jingu, Date climbed the tower on foot and persuaded Kiryu to keep going after the deaths of his friends, and instead raise the orphan of his late friend Yumi Sawamura, Haruka Sawamura, in peace; Date went on to retire from the police and live with his own daughter, Saya, who had been reconciled with him thanks to Kiryu's intervention.

Date in 2010
In 2006, Date decided to rejoin the TMPD at the behest of Junichi Sudo, who sought his help in uncovering the truth behind the resurgent Jingweon Mafia. Date was initially framed as the man who shot the Korean impostor posing as Hiroshi Kazuki, but his name was later cleared. In 2007, Date decided to become a reporter, and he continued to serve as one of Kiryu's main sources of information on the Tojo-kai. He later married the mama of New Serena, Mariko, the widow of a detective who had been killed in the line of duty while serving in Date's unit. In 2010, he was reinstated in the police, and he helped to cover for Kiryu during his time spent under an alias, lying to Shun Akiyama that Kiryu had been cremated. In 2019, he decided to let Ichiban Kasuga and his friends stay at New Serena due to his friendship with Kasuga's associate, a former policeman, Koichi Adachi.