Masaru Sera (1956-4 December 2005) was a Japanese yakuza crime boss who served as President of the Nikkyo Consortium during the 1980s and as Third Chairman of the Tojo-kai from 1993 to 2005, succeeding Takashi Nihara and preceding Kazuma Kiryu. Sera's tenure as Chairman was marked by prosperity due to a strong political partnership with LDP Dietman and MIA Director Kyohei Jingu, but Sera's turn against Jingu in 2005 and Sera's theft of the ¥10 billion in dirty money Jingu owned in the Tojo Clan's coffers sparked a bloody civil war in the Tojo Clan, with the first victim being Sera, assassinated by Akira Nishikiyama.
Biography[]
Early life[]
Masaru Sera was born in Tokyo, Japan in 1956, and he became a prominent student activist during the 1970s (during which time he first met Kyohei Jingu, at the time a fellow political campaigner); he was arrested at the age of 21 for a 1977 anti-government protest which devolved into a riot. Shortly after completing his prison sentence, Sera was taken under the wing of yakuza boss Shintaro Kazama of the Tojo-kai, and Sera would later form the "black ops" Nikkyo Consortium subsidiary of the Tojo Clan.
Empty Lot dispute[]
Sera at the Benten Inn
After Kazama was sent to prison in 1988, he used Sera as his proxy during the Empty Lot dispute, using him to hamstring Sohei Dojima's efforts to acquire the Empty Lot in Kabukicho and thus prevent Dojima from becoming the family's top earner and, thus, its heir apparent. Sera's Nikkyo Consortium rescued the Empty Lot's owner Makoto Makimura from Dotonbori, Osaka on the night of 16 December, with Sera shooting Omi Alliance lieutenant Tsukasa Sagawa in the hand and taking Makoto to his stronghold at the Benten Inn in the Camellia Grove red light district. On the afternoon of 17 December, Sera handed over Makoto to Kazama's other allies, Tachibana Real Estate, with Kazuma Kiryu and Jun Oda taking her with them back to Kabukicho. Sagawa and his hitman (and Makoto's protector) Goro Majima travelled to the Benten Inn that same night to track down Makoto, with Sagawa aiming to kill her, and Majima aiming to rescue her. They fought through Sera's many guards, and, when Majima finally confronted Sera, Sera revealed that he had sent his guards to attack Majima to test how resolved he was to keep Makoto safe. He then challenged him to a fight to test Majima's resolve himself, and Majima defeated him. Sera revealed that Makoto was the owner of the valuable Empty Lot in Kabukicho and was taken there by her new protectors, but their conversation was interrupted when Sagawa shot Sera in the back with a silenced pistol.
Sera at the hospital
Sera recovered as Majima and Sagawa made their way to Kabukicho to search for the girl; at the same time, Oda's betrayal of Tachibana Real Estate led to the kidnapping and murder of Tetsu Tachibana on the night of 18 December 1988. On 19 December, Makoto was captured after voluntarily coming to the negotiating table with Sohei Dojima to discuss the sale of her lot in exchange for the heads of Dojima's three lieutenants, and, that same day, Dojima's new captain Keiji Shibusawa made plans to purge the Kazama-gumi and other rivals of Dojima within the Dojima-gumi to consolidate the anti-Kazama faction's power. Sera convalesced in time to warn Kiryu of Shibusawa's plot to attack the Kazama-gumi offices and kill Osamu Kashiwagi and Akira Nishikiyama, and also rescued the wounded Makimura from the Sebastian Building in Roppongi after Majima single-handedly took down Dojima's 20 guards to rescue the girl. Sera had her taken to the hospital for an emergency procedure and then to his yacht at the Shibaura Wharf for protection, but the Dojima family tailed him there, leading to a massive shootout between Shibusawa and his army of hitmen and Sera and his army of Nikkyo operatives.
Sera at the Dojima offices
Sera himself set out to confront Dojima as Kiryu and Nishikiyama took over Makoto's defense, and, upon arriving at the Dojima family offices, he found that Majima had already fought his way through dozens of guards and taken down Dojima's hitman Lao Gui. Sera arrived just in time to persuade Majima not to kill Lao Gui, as he persuaded Majima that Makoto would never think of him the same way if he did, and he also revealed that he intended to keep Lao Gui captive and use his potential testimony against Dojima as leverage to ensure that Dojima could never pose a threat to Makoto or Kazama again. Sera then gloated to Dojima that Makoto had signed over the Empty Lot to him, and that the asking price was ¥100 billion; he then declared that the age of the Dojima family was at an end. As Majima left, Sera instructed him to tell his boss, Futoshi Shimano, to take responsibility for betraying the Tojo-kai in favor of the Omi Alliance, handing him a gun; Majima would ultimately persuade Shimano to take responsibility, but not by killing him. Instead, Shimano executed the head of Omi HQ, Kenkichi Ogami, with whom he had been discussing plans to take over Kabukicho.
Chairman[]
Sera in 2005
In January 1989, Acting Second Chairman Takashi Nihara announced that he was appointing Sera as the new Captain of the Tojo-kai, effectively making him the clan's new heir, to the dismay of Dojima. In 1993, the elderly and revered Nihara retired, and Sera became the new Chairman. There, he enjoyed a long and stable reign over eastern Japan's yakuza, and his political connections earned a great deal of money for the Tojo-kai coffers. In 1995, while Kiryu was in prison after taking the fall for his sworn brother Akira Nishikiyama's murder of Dojima, Sera sent a hitman to "kill" Kiryu in prison, knowing that, if Kiryu took down his hitman, nobody else would bother to make an attempt on Kiryu's life. Kiyru succeeded in taking down the hitman, guaranteeing his security for another ten years, and ensuring that he would eventually be able to return to the family.
Downfall[]
On 4 December 2005, however, a new crisis emerged when Sera and Kazama secretly arranged for the ¥10 billion that the Tojo-kai had gained over the years to be stolen away rather than allow for the corrupt politician Kyohei Jingu - who had used the Tojo-kai's coffers to launder his own ill-gotten gains - to withdraw the money and use it to destroy the Tojo-kai. That same night, Sera was assassinated by hitmen sent by Nishikiyama, who coveted the stolen yen for himself, believing that it would advance his own chances of becoming the next chairman. At his funeral, Nishikiyama also attempted to have Kazama assassinated in order to frame Kiryu for the murder and ostracize him once again, but Kiryu ultimately discovered from Kazama that he and Sera had stolen the yen to prevent the ambitious Jingu from laundering it, and, after Kazama was murdered by Shimano (and Shimano and Nishikiyama both died in the ensuing wave of mob violence), Kiryu - in accordance with Sera's will - became the new Tojo-kai chairman. Kiryu was only Chairman for one day, as he decided to appoint Kazama's longtime friend Yukio Terada to the chairmanship as he attempted to retire to civilian life.