For the first ten years of its run, the Yakuza series didn’t get much attention outside of Japan. Then, from 2015 onwards, it got a new lease on life when Yakuza 0 exceeded expectations. Whether it’s the classic brawler formula or the new JPRG formula seen in Yakuza: Like a Dragon and the upcoming Like a Dragon 8, it’s really caught on worldwide.
Still, it was made for its home audience first and foremost. The games are about the Japanese criminal underworld, with Japanese characters, businesses, and celebrity appearances. Ironically, this has perhaps made it more appealing to international audiences as it makes the games more authentic. Even so, they might not be aware the games have featured some curious celebrities over the years.
10 Ayana Tsubaki
First off, that isn’t a typo. The character in Yakuza 3 is called AyaKA Tsubaki, but she’s based on and voiced by model AyaNA Tsubaki. Her character is the one giving the series’ protagonist Kazuma Kiryu a rubdown in the Kamurochō Massage minigame. She also has a substory where she tells Kiryu she’s transgender, and he gives her a pep talk.
This is because Ayana is transgender herself and worked in Kabukichō, the real-life basis for Kamurochō, during her college years. Her story was big news in Japan at the time of the original game’s release, but Western players didn’t get the minigame or substory until the Remastered Collection.
9 The Ms Yakuza 5 Girls
During Yakuza 5’s development, RGG Studio came up with different ways to showcase its cities’ local cultures. One of those ways was a contest where one woman from each city would become its virtual representative. They’d be recreated in the game and given their own substories to interact with the player.
Titled Miss Ryu ga Gotoku 5 wo Sagase! (‘The Search for Miss Like a Dragon 5’), 3 women per city would be picked out from auditions. Then they’d take part in promotional videos, interviews, and more before the final event, where the winners would literally be crowned. The official Miss Yakuza 5’s were Mami Yamishita, Yuiko Kan, Miki Murai, Nanako Kodama, and Rena Nanami. While the contest’s website is long gone, it can still be found on the Wayback Machine for those wondering why Sega passed up on the wonderfully named Sakura Kiryu.
8 Tatsuya Kawagoe
Throughout Yakuza 5, players can bump into this curious TV chef. If they recommend the right local restaurants to him, he’ll…give them advice. But it does give each character an extra life bar, complete with attack and Heat gauge buffs. He’s also a TV chef in real life, appearing on cookery shows throughout the 2000s and 2010s.
He’s since wound things down to focus on his businesses, which was perhaps for the best, as he’s a polarizing figure. Like defending his surprise ¥800 charges ($8.50 at the time) for bottled water by saying it was ‘high-quality water', and that middle-class earners just don’t understand how high-class restaurants operate.
7 Kiyoshi ‘Tuna King’ Kimura
Kiyoshi Kimura made his name in Japan by being the face of Sushi Zanmai, a chain restaurant that serves sushi and other seafood dishes. He earned the ‘Tuna King’ moniker for being the highest bidder at Japan’s New Year Tuna auctions across the 2010s, breaking the world record in 2019 by paying the equivalent of $4 million on a 613lb blue fin tuna.
Before all that, he appeared in Yakuza 5 to introduce Kiryu to the fishing minigames. He even appeared in adverts for the game alongside the Dragon of Dojima. His likeness can still be found in the games and spinoffs today, as a little model of him sits outside each branch of Sushi Zanmai.
6 Katsuya Ueyama
It’s one thing to fish alongside the president of a restaurant chain. But what about fighting alongside them? In Yakuza 5, Akiyama can help a restaurant owner beat up a gang of punks for littering the streets of Sotenbori, which is just as well, as the man is Katsuya Ueyama, the chairman behind Kuchikatsu Daruma.
It’s a chain restaurant that sells fried food on skewers, and its most popular location is in Dōtonbori, the real-life inspiration for Sotenbori. Like Kimura, his model sits outside each virtual version of his restaurant, though it’s less flattering than Kimura’s.
5 JAV Stars
Name any Yakuza game, and chances are there’s at least one or two ‘adult video’ stars in the cast. They usually play one of the hostesses for the hostess club minigames, but sometimes they appear in other roles. For example, Anri Okita was the ‘Sexy’ option for Yakuza 6’s Virtual Chat game.
The peak came in Yakuza 0, where nearly all the female NPCs were adult stars. The most popular ones got made into Platinum Hostesses and voiced by their namesakes. The game doesn’t get ruder than bikini videos, though. All the players can do is talk to them, play darts or 8-ball, and even sing karaoke with them. It’s quite wholesome and innocent compared to their main work.
4 Sam Lee
In every other version of Yakuza 0, Lao Gui is an assassin who looks like a nightmare. The only thing worse than that was Koji Suzuki’s rough handling of Mandarin. To a non-speaker, it doesn’t sound so off. But native speakers have reported how obvious it was that Suzuki was reading his lines phonetically.
Not that mainland Asian players got to see it first-hand. Chinese versions of Yakuza 0 replaced Suzuki with Hong Kong actor Sam Lee, famous for appearing in crime drama films. He voiced the character, and his likeness was used for his face too. That might be an improvement all around.
3 Shinichi Shinohara
In Yakuza Kiwami 1, Kiryu will randomly come across a dispute between a man and a woman. Suddenly, a ‘Man with a Big Head’ will intervene, taking down the man with a painful-looking judo hold. After this, Kiryu will have to show him the Kamurochō sights before introducing him to the Underground Coliseum and eventually facing off against him in battle.
In reality, he’s Shinichi Shinohara. He’s a pretty big guy all around, which helped him win Silver at the 2000 Summer Olympics in 100+kg Judo. Prior to that, he won 2 gold medals at the 1999 World Judo Championships, two golds at the 1995 Asian Judo Championships, then a gold each at the East Asian Games and Asian Games. He’s since retired, though it’s probably best not to try him, just in case.
2 Takeshi Kitano
The Yakuza games have featured many actors famous for their crime films. Yakuza 0 brought in 3 at once in Hitoshi Ozawa, Riki Takeuchi, and Hideo Nakano as boss characters Kuze, Awano, and Shibusawa, respectively. So, it’s not all that weird that Yakuza 6 featured famous actor, director, producer, artist, comedian, TV host, etc., Takeshi ‘Beat’ Kitano. Right?
Well, it is a little odd, as he’s famously not keen on electronics, including video games. His most notable involvement with the medium, Takeshi’s Challenge, is terrible as a game but a masterpiece in trolling game-players. So, why did he appear in Yakuza 6, then? Because he’s friends with series producer Toshihiro Nagoshi and wanted to do him a favor. Simple as that.
1 Pro-Wrestlers
Yakuza 6 introduced Clan Creator, a minigame where Kiryu would command a gang to attack his rivals, JUSTIS, in a simplified strategy game. Weirdly, JUSTIS was made up of New Japan Pro Wrestlers. Not just any random grappler either. The likes of Hiroshi Tanahashi, Kazuchika Okada, and Tetsuya Naito are basically their versions of the WWE’s John Cena, Randy Orton, and Seth Rollins in terms of fame.
Yakuza Kiwami 2 brought Clan Creator back and brought in more wrestlers. This time, they went with Japan’s wrestling legends. The likes of Tatsumi Fujinami, Riki Choshu, and Genichiro Tenryu tussled with the likes of Hulk Hogan, Lex Luger, and the Legion of Doom. They could also be fought in the Coliseum alongside their younger counterparts, complete with their trademark moves in case it didn't sound challenging enough.