Sohei Dojima (1926-October 1995) was a Japanese yakuza crime boss and the Patriarch of the Dojima-gumi subsidiary of the Tokyo-based Tojo-kai clan. He was one of the most powerful figures within the Tojo clan, overseeing the 25 December 1980 massacre of 33 Korean gangsters in Kabukicho and the violent 1988 "Empty Lot" dispute with the Omi Alliance and real estate broker Tetsu Tachibana. He was murdered by a rising star in his organization, Akira Nishikiyama, in 1995 after he attempted to make a move on Nishikiyama's adoptive sister. Sohei's son, Daigo Dojima, would later go on to be Chairman of the Tojo-kai.
Biography[]
Rise to power[]
Sohei Dojima was born in Tokyo, Japan in 1926, and he was a founding member of Makoto Tojo's Tojo-kai yakuza clan during the 1960s. As the Tojo-kai grew into an organization with tens of thousands of members, Dojima was granted his own sub-family, the Dojima-gumi, which based itself in Tokyo. He married Yayoi Dojima and fathered Daigo Dojima in 1976, but he engaged in several extramarital affairs with his wife's knowledge. In 1980, in response to a string of murders of Dojima-gumi members by the Korean Jingweon Mafia, Dojima had his lieutenants Shintaro Kazama and Futoshi Shimano kill 36 members of the Korean mob in the infamous "Jingweon massacre" of 25 December 1980. However, Kazama secretly spared three Korean gangsters out of mercy, and, disillusioned with Dojima's cruelty, he began to secretly undermine Dojima's near-unchecked power. Kazama was later granted his own family, the Kazama-gumi, while Dojima's organization came to have three lieutenants and subgroups: Daisaku Kuze and his Kenno-kai, Keiji Shibusawa and his Shibusawa-gumi, and Hiroki Awano and his Taihei Association.
Empty lot dispute[]
In 1988, in a bid to impress Tojo-kai chairman Takashi Nihara and become the heir apparent to the Tojo clan, Dojima decided to buy a large amount of property in Kabukicho for ¥3 billion and sell it as a bundle for an exorbitantly high price. He also worked with his lieutenants to bust Kazama, informing on his gambling operation to the police and ensuring that he was sent to prison. When the mysterious and unknown owner of an empty lot in Kabukicho refused to sell the lot - the last piece of undeveloped land in the neighborhood - to Dojima, Dojima promised ¥1 billion and the captaincy of the Kazama-gumi to the lieutenant who could obtain the empty lot for his family. To further impair Kazama, Dojima had his adoptive son Kazuma Kiryu framed for the murder of the debtor Taichi Kurihara, giving the family the grounds to expel Kazama should Kiryu be found guilty of murder. This made a powerful enemy of the low-level Kiryu, who discovered that he had been set up by Daisaku Kuze, and Kiryu fought his way past Kuze to Dojima to announce that he was leaving the family in order to prove his and Kazama's innocence. Dojima had Kuze sever his pinky finger in an act of yubitsume, nominally because he had agreed to expel Kiryu from the family without first seeking his permission, but secretly because Kuze had failed Dojima by not killing Kiryu.
Dojima at the Sebastian Building
When Kiryu joined the real estate broker Tetsu Tachibana in attempting to prevent the Dojima-gumi from acquiring the empty lot, Dojima and his lieutenants initiated a manhunt for Kiryu and Tachibana. Shibusawa succeeded in capturing Tachibana, who was tortured to death by Kuze's enforcer Gengyo Yoneda against Kuze's orders. This forced the family to search for Makoto Makimura, Tachibana's sister, who inherited the empty lot. Shibusawa's capture of Makoto secured him the captaincy of the Kazama-gumi, but Makoto still refused to sell the lot to Dojima unless he agreed to execute his three lieutenants for killing her brother. Dojima responded by having his bodyguard Lao Gui shoot Makoto, nearly killing her. This resulted in her lover Goro Majima storming the Dojima-gumi headquarters, intending on killing the entire Dojima-gumi. He defeated Awano, who, in turn, gave his life to save him from Lao Gui, having come to sympathize with Majima's noble views about the yakuza and casting away his ambitions. Majima nearly killed both Lao Gui and Dojima, but the empty lot's new owner and fellow yakuza leader, Masaru Sera, convinced Majima not to kill them. He announced that he would keep Lao Gui in captivity to use his potential tesitmony as leverage against Dojima, tempering his ambitions.
Downfall[]
Dojima's body
Shortly after, Lao Gui was thrown into "the Hole" by the Nikkyo Consortium, and, as Shibusawa and Kuze were arrested and Awano killed, Dojima lost all of his lieutenants. His hopes to become Tojo chairman were also dashed, and he was instead appointed guardian to Masaru Sera, who would himself become chairman in 1993. Dojima was left languishing with his glorious past during his decline, and, in October 1995, he kidnapped and attempted to rape Kiryu and Akira Nishikiyama's adoptive sister Yumi Sawamura, but Nishikiyama shot Dojima dead before he could do so. In order to allow for Nishikiyama to be there for his dying sister, Kiryu took the fall for his adoptive brother, who was granted the privilege of forming his own family, a privilege which was supposed to have been given to Kiryu. The truth of the murder came out ten years later, and Dojima's wife and son came to be on very good terms with Kiryu.