‘We Tried to Think of Someone Who Makes You Go, ‘This Guy’s a Creep”: Yakuza/Like a Dragon Director Addresses Controversial Casting

The director of Yakuza 3 Kiwami + Dark Ties has broken his silence on Ryo Ga Gotoku Studio’s controversial hiring of Teruyuki Kagawa to play Goh Hamazaki, saying they needed someone who would make audiences think, “This guy’s a creep.”

This comes from an interview with Horii conducted by Japanese outlet GAME Watch, and independently translated by IGN. In the interview, Horii is asked directly about the decision to recast certain characters in Kiwami from their original Japanese actors. His general response as to why he recast both Hamazaki and Rikiya Shimabukuro is that while it would “certainly be safer not to recast them and avoid online criticism,” the studio “felt there was no use being afraid.”

Horii goes on to say that they based their decision on who they most wanted to see perform. When asked directly about Kagawa playing Hamazaki, this is what Horii had to say:

Hamazaki is a sleazy, persistent, and militant yakuza, right? Since he isn’t an explosive character like Kanda, when we tried to think of someone who makes you go, “This guy’s a creep,” naturally it was Kagawa – that was the main factor. Kagawa’s acting is fun to watch. Even when he’s chopping a pig’s feet off with a chef’s knife, it has a slimy feel. That feeling permeates his performance, so it brings a freshness to the scene and made it feel really fun.

Kagawa’s casting as Hamazaki has been met with anger from Yakuza fans due to the actor having been accused by multiple women of sexual assault, with one woman coming forward with what seems to be photographic evidence of the incident. In 2022, Kagawa admitted to and apologized for one of the incidents, but another of his accusers has said she received no apology.

Following the announcement of Kagawa’s casting, Yakuza fans reacted in anger on social media, getting #REMOVEKAGAWA trending on multiple networks and creating a Change.org petition that at the time of this writing has nearly 10,000 signatures. Fans have accused RGG Studio of suppressing the #REMOVEKAGAWA hashtag and deleting comments referencing the issue on its official Instagram page. And a number of them have pointed out that Sega has recast actors for offenses in the past – Pierre Taki was recast in Judgment back in 2019 after he was arrested for cocaine possesssion.

Up to this point, neither RGG Studio nor Sega has offered official comment on Kagawa’s casting, nor the accusations – Horii’s answer is the first statement that’s been offered on the subject. However, Sega did publish a trailer on its official YouTube after the wave of criticism, which introduced the Japanese voice cast and opened on a longer clip of Hamazaki. IGN reached out to Sega for additional comment ahead of this story, but did not hear back in time for publication.

Rebekah Valentine is a senior reporter for IGN. Got a story tip? Send it to [email protected].