Yakuza 3 Remake Backlash Blows Up Again as Actor Guilty of Sexual Harassment Stars in New Trailer

It’s pretty crazy they’d fire a dude for doing cocaine but sexual harassment is absolutely A-OK.

@SeaDaVie they’ve also fired someone for smoking weed.

Finally an article on this, RGG have handled the entire situation horribly which makes me pretty much guaranteed to not buy any of their games until they take action. Why do they remove actors for drug use but sexual harassment is ok?

He should get punished accordingly , but i dont agree his job should be involved in this , i hate how people always push others to lose their jobs when its a seperate thing. If those women were his coworkers , then thats a different story.

Get a life and stop witch hunting. What are you even doing as a gamer vetting people who create or act in games.

It's horrible what he has done, but the whole studio shouldn't be judged on this (Much like the whole sucker punch situation)

@Oram77 it’s what people do unfortunately. Guilty by association. Especially if the finger pointing can be done from a soapbox.

@Ultrasmiles He allegedly violently struck a female member of production staff in the head on one of his dramas. He also admitted to video-calling a junior kabuki actor filming his SA of one of the hostesses, which could very much constitute sexual harassment if the actor didn't consent to that. His coworkers aren't safe.

@AhmadSumadi Exactly right my friend.

It's law's job to punish him, not RGG studio, not Sega, and definitely not yours.

@Dalamar

It's law's job to punish him, not RGG studio, not Sega, and definitely not yours.

I’m pretty sure if you go into work tomorrow and grab a woman by the hair, you will be instantly fired, and probably lose most of your friends. Your boss won’t just be like “it’s the laws job to punish him not me”. As crazy as this is going to sound to you, here’s the thing, the bar for getting fired from your job is most definitely lower than a criminal conviction.Theres quite a lot of things one can do that will get them fired without ever getting arrested.

@Oram77 I mean, it's the studio's decision to plaster his face everywhere and endorse his actions and censor all criticism. The director and producer of Kiwami 3, one of the faces of the studio, personally hid replies and said they were annoying. Their employees have always championed it as a great place to work where they're always in sync and when they're not they get into healthy arguments and are free to raise their voice and disagree and resolve things quickly, but no one saw an issue with this? Sounds like it's either not as great as they say or everyone's complicit.

Still find it weird that they went out the way to put real life people onto already established characters, you end up with situations like these...

Same with Rikiya and the old guy (and Hamazaki). Like I genuinely didn't know those two were the same characters from the original.

@04tenno Saying everyone is complicit is an extremely bold claim to make, I hope you are wrong though.

@SeaDaVie The difference is Pierre Taki was actually arrested for doing cocaine, while Kagawa was never arrested. That's why RGG fired the former, but not the latter. They won't really care about what their actors did in the past unless they actually got in trouble legally for it.

@darkswabber I could be wrong, but I don't think they fired anyone for smoking weed. Hiroki Narimiya, the original voice actor for Tanimura, was falsely accused of doing cocaine, and he retired as a result. RGG recast him later on, maybe because they couldn't get the rights to use his likeness again. Keep in mind, the original Tanimura's face was modeled after Hiroki's.

I'm conflicted. RGG were my favourite studio. But now I don't know if I should keep supporting them or boycott them. Guess I'll just avoid buying yakuza 3 and wait for project century.

That's pretty disgusting.

The internet is generally pretty fast to cancel anyone accused of anything, but in this case we're talking about someone who's actually proven to be guilty.

This person shouldn't get a job anywhere.

While Kagawa is an a-hole and I hate how RGG's dumb decision to cast him has ruined all discussions surrounding Kiwami 3, I can't help but feel that the only reason why people care about this so much is because this boycott was popularized on social media, and not solely because of morals.

Kiwami 3 is certainly not the only Yakuza game in which RGG has cast questionable people for their roles. The original voice actor for Hamazaki also did some shady stuff, and the Japanese voice actor for Bryce Papenbrook in Infinite Wealth did some disgusting things that were arguably even worse than what Kagawa did. And yet, no one in the Yakuza fandom cared or bothered to bring up the reprehensible things they did online.

It seems to me that the backlash towards Kagawa, while justified, is almost performative. Like, if people weren't posting #REMOVEKAGAWA everywhere, half of the individuals who are boycotting the game wouldn't be boycotting it in the first place and simply wouldn't care enough to avoid buying the game. You could argue that people didn't know about the pasts of those actors, but even if they did, would they still be boycotting the game if the backlash towards them wasn't publicized online?

It's sort of like a peer pressure thing. If a lot of other people decide that something is deserving of a boycott, then you should boycott too.

@Questionable_Duck That's why I brought up the Sucker Punch situation as a comparison, the people who are up and arms about it, were never going to buy the game in the first place and was using it some sort of justification.

This is one of those things that needs far more info, context, and background to judge.

Firstly, as it is reported that he admitted it back in 2022, there is an onus on RGG / SEGA to justify this decision. I don't think it unreasonable to expect them to justify why he was given the job, given his background.

However in saying that, consider someone who works in a food factory producing say, frozen veg; if said person admitted a similar crime, would we expect the company to sack the person - yes. But would we expect them to recall every pack of frozen veg still on sale that he was involved in the production of - of course not. (I could go on given the silliness around the GoY situation)

Normally, I would jump into "Innocent until proven guilty" here - one of the things I really, truly hate is how society seems perfectly happy to literally ruin an innocent persons life just because they have been accused of something. No action, other than due diligence safeguarding should be taken until someone has been found guilty. However - since there is reported to be an admittance here, this probably doesn't apply.
But, if he DID admit to a crime - has he been legally charged / found guilty, and if not why not?

Finally, there is such a thing as repentance and forgiveness. Though repentance needs to be genuine and in most cases absolute.
Or are we saying that anyone found guilty of a crime should never be allowed to work again? What level of crime does this apply to, and does this apply to all jobs or just certain ones?

@Oram77 You’re comparing Erica Ishii/SP employees’ political views to a sex offender? Also the ones pushing this hashtag are the Yakuza fandom. That’s who it is. The biggest names in the fandom who organised the push for Yakuza 5 to even get localised, they’re the ones pushing this movement.

@nessisonett No, I was talking about the Charlie Kirk situation
Edit: For the record I thought that whole "boycott" on Yotei was extremely dumb, and very happy to see they have been made to look stupid, I was using it to show how people were using that to peddle their agenda when they had no desire on buying the game in the first place.

@Oram77 I would argue that the main reason why Kagawa's misdeeds got more attention than the rest is because people were upset about RGG recasting Hamazaki and Rikiya, so they looked up the new VAs online and happened to stumble upon reports about his past actions.

It's possible that the backlash towards Kagawa wouldn't have been as strong, had RGG not modeled Hamazaki's face after Kagawa's and just reused his old character design. Same with Rikiya and Nakahara.

@Oram77 But you’re saying here that the ones complaining weren’t going to buy Kiwami 3 anyway, when that’s patently untrue. The main people complaining here are Yakuza fans. The series has a diverse fanbase of people very disappointed by RGG’s actions here.

@Rich33 It seems that Kagawa only apologized to one of his victims, and he has refused to apologize to the other. According to one report, he even compared his crimes to that of his cousin, Ichikawa Ennosuke IV (who not only sexually harassed several women and bullied his coworkers, but also unalived his parents and tried to unalive himself as part of some assisted s**cide plan), and said that they weren't that bad. So he doesn't really regret his actions. He was apparently drunk during both incidents, which occurred on the same day I think.

@nessisonett I was piggybacking off what @Questionable_Duck was saying, and I think what they said is true. Look I'm all saying is some people following along with this but in reality they don't care and are just doing this for some "brownie points"

As someone who knows almost nothing about making games, is it even possible for Sega/RGG to remove him without causing a massive delay? Said massive delay may cause them to lose an insane amount more money than by keeping him in it and losing the boycotters’ purchases. I just don’t think the logistics business-wise are there.

@Oram77 your stance isn’t wrong IMO. A lot of people who have joined this boycott don’t care about Yakuza. But that’s just how social media is. Is there probably a decent amount of Yakuza fans who boycott it? Yes, no doubt. But there’s also no doubt a lot of people jumping in just because it’s the new trend or whatever.

Do I condone Kagawa’s actions? Absolutely not. But Sega/RGG would’ve put a stop to his hiring way back if they cared. There’s no way they did not do a thorough background check even if it’s a rehire. People are allowed to boycott it, but yeah. I don’t think anything major will change. Maybe they won’t rehire him on future projects because of the boycotts but I doubt anything will be done to Yakuza Kiwami 3.

Hard to hold an opinion with so few details. I hope the consequences, in whatever form, serve as a sobering reminder to the offender of the far reaching destructive force of abhorrent behaviour. I hope the victims find healing as they carry this with them for the rest of their lives.

@Questionable_Duck
That certainly raises a number of questions, one of which would be - has he been charged / gone to court, and if not, why not?
NB I'm always curious where a person admits 1 crime but not another - unless they are admitting a significantly more minor case, or there is strong evidence for 1 and nothing for the other.

@CWill97
I would think a delay would be necessary but probably not massive (depending on how big a part they have), as it should be a simple case of rerecording (face/lines) then a replacement exercise - unless VA lines were recorded in group sessions, then it could be more difficult.

@Rich33 I think Kagawa and the rest just settled the ordeal out of court. His victims never tried to press charges on him, even though one of them said that they got PTSD from the incident.

I could be wrong, but I believe the person that Kagawa didn't apologize to is also the same person shown in the photos where Kagawa is grabbing her hair. So I don't think Kagawa's refusal to apologize to her stems from a lack of evidence.

@CWill97 RGG recasted Pierre Taki shortly after Judgment's release in Japan, and it only took them a short amount of time to do so. They could recast Kagawa without delaying Kiwami 3 if they really wanted to, but it's clear they don't.

Even ignoring this drama and the recasts and Kiryu's shirt, I have little confidence in RGG remaking 3 well, especially after Pirate Yakuza. But I am curious...

@Lowdefal
If thats the case for how they make their games then it could pose issues as they may need to get cast back together, though reading @Questionable_Duck 's post immediately below your own they may (Im only totally guessing) do individual line recording rather than group.

@SeaDaVie nowhere in the article does it stated that the incident happened at work

@Questionable_Duck I had no clue about that. Super interesting to read up on! The replacement voice actor did a fantastic job with Kyōhei Hamura. Miou Tanaka was one of the standout performances of Judgment IMO. And to do it in that circumstance in 3 months? Props to the dude!

@Dalamar You sound like a psycho. Touch grass, homie. If you were confirmed to have committed illegal violent or sexual crimes whether it was acknowledged by the law or not, then you should suffer consequences. Period, the end. I can't actually believe so many users on this site liked/agreed with such an insane comment.

@Northern_munkey I already had a debate with them on a certain Stellar Blade article, so I'm all good bud.

The fact he's getting away with it doesn't surprise me, Japan is one of the most misogynistic countries. If he did what he did in the West he would have served some jail time and deservably so, forceably removing a woman's bra and assaulting her is disgusting, and to think there was others in attendance egging him on.

So the guy admitted sexual harassment? Was he punished by the law? If so, I’m not for the idea of never letting ex criminals work again and just sit around on benefits…if not then, well, I’ve also nothing against a little vigilante justice in this case (meaning the guy losing his job and generally having his past misdeeds all over social media).

@yohn777 is "touch grass" a new buzzword you have to use whenever you disagree with someone?

@Dalamar No it's a phrase for whenever somebody says something really f**kin stupid like trying to imply that someone who committed sexual crimes shouldn't be shamed or punished for being given high profile appearances in multi million dollar game franchises.

Shame on RGG for turning a blind eye when there's tons of evidence of the actor being guilty.

But they can fire an employee for smoking marijuana.

Shame.

If an actor or company behaviour bothers you that much and not in line with your politics or moral code then just don't buy their games and moved on.

Either Sega will or not remove the actor from the game is not your business, especially if you're not gonna buy their games.

So i'm not sure why some people are so obsessed and keeps lingering on the matter as if Sega must listen to their demands. But i guess playing the moral high ground and as "fans" who thinks they can dictate what a company must or musn't do is so much fun for these people.

I can't believe there are actual humans behind these accounts rn practically defending this dude that's already admitted to doing something wrong and with there being literal photographic evidence

Almost like they should just use voice actors instead of "real" ones. Og Tanimura was lame, guys lol. This guy also sounds like a dbag.

@PuppetMaster So you're ok with sexual predators still getting work and promotion?

@DennisReynolds I believe with innocent until proven guilty and every human who's commited crime but already repent to their sin deserves a second chance. That's all.

@PuppetMaster He's guilty he himself admitted to it. Also there's some crimes you can't come back from and sexual assault in any form is one of them. If you do it once you will do it again, their only regret is being found out.

@Oram77 touché sir..

@Elfuggingjefe I agree. I have had many really good discussions with the majority of users on PS and a few of them who I initially didn't see eye to eye with are now friends that I often play online with and we continue to have discussions in depth that we wouldn't be able to have here plus actually being able to hear each other speak allows a much better depth and understanding in getting your point across.

@Elfuggingjefe Great post. It's nice to see a somewhat nuanced take on here. These comments sections devolve into people attacking each other way too often.

The subject of the article doesn't sit well with me I must admit. Whether it is enough to stop me from playing the game remains to be seen.

@Northern_munkey
Both good points #59 / #62

There are a small minority that are just closed to any discussion - im sure I can be a bit stubborn myself on occasion, but I try to understand other points of view even if I end up agreeing to disagree.

But there was something that @Oram77 said that resonated with me, in that you can disagree with someone on 1 subject, but agree on others.

My biggest issue is (such is the joys of writing short comments!) that sometimes I write something that is read differently to how I meant it (sometimes because I haven't put enough context/clarification), or because I meant to come off funny and it wasn't read that way - I know Mr Khastic gets it all the time!

@Northern_munkey Push Square is still better than a lot of other places/forums because it's an isolated community and it's moderated well, for the most part. Sometimes my comments get deleted by the mods, and while I disagree with that sometimes, I understand that they're just trying to prevent the comments on this site from devolving into toxic arguments.

@Questionable_Duck @Rich33 I agree with both of you. Sometimes it appears that somethings are up for debate and discussion whereas some topics are just simply never going to be discussed by PS. For instance this article and it's subject matter are very much on PS's radar whereas a certain actors affiliations with a domestic terrorist organisation don't get a mention or the actor in the intergalactic game verbally insulting gamers that don't identify a certain way will never get the same treatment either. Now this comment is only meant to provide an example of how I see personally the direction PS leans when deciding which articles to pursue and it's this that has me on a 50/50 split decision as to whether I want to continue using PS at all. All the guys on here I have discussions with are pretty decent and are open to seeing an alternative view point even if they don't agree themselves which is the only reason I stick around. Overall PS is a good site but sometimes it really irks me when they decide what can and can't be discussed when they themselves instigate these topics.

@Northern_munkey @Questionable_Duck
You only need to briefly read some of the 'other' comments sections out there to know how comparatively good the one here is.
Youtube comments sections are often cesspools, and IGN isn't much better, seemingly filled with fanboys who seem to think that if they fanboy hard enough they may get paid! At least thats my opinion.

I do know what you mean in the selectivity though (N_m).
And this can extend to very much game / hardware related news.
1 of my bugbears recently is PS's coverage of Pro - we seem to have it highlighted in separate articles each time a dev team does not do an amazing job of Pro support. Yet I can't remember PS covering the recent DF review of Ninja Gaiden 4 (or a few others) which shows a very dramatic improvement in visuals / framerates for the Pro version.
I'm all for calling out substandard development, but balance is needed. I really felt NG4 looked lacklustre in footage and it put me off a bit (yes, I'm a bit shallow lol), but that isn't really the case for all versions.
NX gamer also covered the sweeping changes for BM Wukong which hasn't been mentioned here.
(Rant over.. back to a nice calming hot drink lol)

He admitted his wrongdoings, paid the price and moved on.
I know this is kinda hard to imagine.

Big uproar here and yet we accept criminals, sexual predators and nazi sympathisers in the white house and other places of power.

Remove Kagawa Posts ring as hollow as 6-7, cause gamers love to shout in the echo chamber, with nothing behind it.

Par for the course for the increasingly grotesque games industry.

Not condoning what he does, but like always, the majority of people fighting for this, most likely would have never bought the game anyways. Just the Hogwarts, and just like Yotei. Whether you think it’s right or wrong, I think game companies are realizing they don’t have to bow to the keyboard warriors anymore.

@SeaDaVie The Japanese are quite messed up on certain ideas like with anime a child picture and calling her 18 is a ok even with sexual content.

@tameshiyaku Its tonedeaf and maybe you find sexual predators normal that is your choice. The US is already a ***** with no democracy.

This comment section is a travesty. People trying to find nuance for a guy who admitted to sexual harassment and has a fairly long trail of incidents in the news. Absolutely shameful.

@tameshiyaku No we do not, have you not seen the millions of people protesting and turning out for marches? What the hell are you even talking about?

Totally confused, if the actor was recast for Kiwami why is there still a problem? Surely the new actors voice/image would be in the trailer? Or is it peeps annoyed about the recasting it's not that clear. Also if the new actor is in the trailer surely same peeps should be used to the fact by now? Again, all a bit confusing.

@tameshiyaku If you replaced "White House" with "UK Government" you'd be spot on.

@ShadowofSparta Absolutely, and the no-kings marches were meaningful. Still awful that a large part of the world condones so much misconduct right there where it actually matters... the ballot. Mass spamming YouTube videos and comment sections over a problematic/criminal voice actor appears rather ineffective and oftentimes just insincere "activism" and not tackling systemic problems.

@Flaming_Kaiser Aha, if that's really your takeaway then I can disregard anything from you by default. As usual personal and hostile, so not surprised. Though I do fully agree with you on comment #71, a point where many here would cry out "censorship" if Sony doesn't publish every smut game.

@Jammer if you mean Tory and the monarchy, absolutely.

Separate the art from the artist.

@Krlozgod
I always do this.
Everyone has skeletons in the closet, that I don't need/want to know about...