In a series of games about the Japanese yakuza, one wouldn’t expect the bulk of its storylines to revolve around family, but the fact of the matter is that yakuza factions themselves are structured like family. Since RGG Studios’ Yakuza game series launched its first title in 2005, main protagonist Kazuma Kiryu has won fan hearts with his tough-as-nails Dragon of Dojima title and massive heart.
From the moment Kiryu met Haruka Sawamura, the lost daughter of the only woman he ever loved, that massive heart of his shifted his life in a whole new direction. Like him, Haruka was an orphan, and knowing exactly what she was going through, he adopted her in an effort to give her the best life he could. Sadly, things don’t always go as planned. Despite loving Haruka with all his heart, and caring deeply for the kids of Morning Glory Orphanage, Kiryu’s ties to the Tojo Clan repeatedly dragged him away from his new found family, even putting them in harm’s way.
Protecting Haruka in Yakuza Kiwami Led Kiryu to Becoming Her Guardian
After Kiryu was released from a ten-year prison stint for a murder he didn’t commit, he wanted to distance himself from the yakuza and the Tojo Clan completely by starting over as a civilian. Unfortunately, criminal life isn’t easy to walk away from, and he finds himself continuously drawn back into the life. After happening across nine-year-old Haruka Sawamura in the aftermath of a violent encounter, he finds himself protecting her throughout the game from a whole host of threats, all in search of .
This first encounter with Haruka changes Kiryu’s life unexpectedly, especially when he discovers that she is Yumi’s daughter. Growing up with Yumi in the orphanage, she was the only girl he ever loved. He went to prison before he could ever tell her how he felt, and after Yumi’s death during the climax of the first Yakuza game, Kiryu adopts Haruka as his own daughter, not just to honor Yumi, but because he came to care deeply for her throughout the run on her life.
Haruka reminded him of himself, and he wanted to do whatever he could to give her a better life than the one he had growing up. That would mean distancing himself from the Tojo Clan and the yakuza, but he would soon find out that was a task greater than he could accomplish.
Sengoku’s Men Use Haruka to Lure Kiryu Out In Yakuza Kiwami 2
On the one-year anniversary of Yumi and Nishikiyama’s death, Kiryu and Haruka are visiting the grave sight when Yukio Terada comes seeking Kiryu’s advice. While they are talking, the Omi Alliance show up and shoot Terada dead, leaving Kiryu to get to the bottom of it. One of the saddest ways this disrupts Kiryu’s daughter is when she quietly realizes for the first time that his yakuza life must be prioritized.
Haruka removes herself from his responsibility, suggesting she can stay at Sunflower Orphanage so he can unearth the truth. Unfortunately, caring for her means Haruka is now Kiryu’s greatest weakness, and the Sengoku Family abduct her to draw him out. It’s a terrifying enough ordeal that by the end of the game, Kiryu decides that he has to leave the Tojo Clan behind once and for all, and that will mean moving Haruka as far away from Kamurocho as possible.
Moving to Okinawa Didn’t Change Anything for Kiryu or His Orphans
There were a significant number of changes made between the original Yakuza 3 and 2026’s Yakuza Kiwami 3 & Dark Ties, but one thing that remains the same across is Kiryu’s absence from Morning Glory Orphanage and Okinawa. Starting Morning Glory was Kazuma’s way of atoning and paying back all the things his own adoptive father did for him, but no matter how much he loved the orphans he took under his wing, cutting ties with the Tojo Clan was an impossibility.
He often left a houseful of orphans to their own devices, with 13-year-old Haruka in charge. Considering that Morning Glory was the target of the game’s antagonists, the fact that Kiryu wasn’t even there when Yoshitaka Mine showed up to bulldoze the orphanage is pretty telling. One of the most tragic aspects of Kiryu’s logic in Yakuza Kiwami 3 is that he’s out there working to stop that very thing from happening. Despite his heart always being in the right place, Kiryu himself is rarely where he needs to be for the kids when he needs to be there.
Kiryu Still Hadn’t Learned His Lesson by Yakuza 4
No matter how much Uncle Kaz loves the kids of Morning Glory, the Tojo Clan always seems to come first. In theory, it’s easy to imagine how he rationalizes clearing the Tojo Clan from his life so he can focus on the kids. Sadly, the kids need all of Kiryu’s focus, so they can grow up in a stable environment and go on to become fully functioning adults.
Despite his status as a civilian, Kiryu is once again drawn back to Kamurocho to insert himself into another threat against the Tojo. The kids at Morning Glory suffer his absence again, and though they play it tough, they have to be hurting inside every time they’re left alone. Haruka is too young to be the mother figure they need; she’s just a kid herself, and the unfair nature of her role as their caretaker while Kiryu is away from Okinawa is just as stifling to Haruka’s growth as it is to the other kids.
Yakuza 5 Tears Kiryu’s Entire Family Apart for Haruka’s Dreams
One could almost say Kiryu’s decision to distance himself from Haruka’s life so she can pursue her dream of becoming an idol is honorable. He understands that having ties to a former yakuza will destroy any chances she has, so he signs over the orphanage on Mirei Park’s advisement, and then he leaves Okinawa to live under an assumed identity in Nagasugai as a humble taxi-cab driver. The worst part about this choice is that he hates himself for it so much that he can’t even bring himself to look at a picture of the kids at Morning Glory that he left behind.
There are ample opportunities for him to send support money to the orphanage, but money isn’t everything. Across the story, Haruka ‘s behavior is uncannily similar to Kazuma’s. She puts distance between herself and her adoptive siblings, and she feels awful about it. She also suffers quietly as she misses her adoptive father, fearing she will never be able to see him again. She misses him so much that she blows her chance at being a famous idol by telling the world on stage how much she loves her former yakuza father, and then she runs off to find him.
Kiryu’s Pride Tears the Whole Family Apart In Yakuza 6
After Haruka exposes her connection to Kiryu at the end of Yakuza 5, he takes responsibility for his crimes during the fight in Kamurocho and gets sent to jail for three years at the start of Yakuza 6: The Song of Life. This leaves Haruka in charge of Morning Glory once again, but because of her disgraced idol status, her appearance in tabloids with her Morning Glory siblings fills her with guilt. Worried that her ties to them will destroy their chances at a good future, she runs away from Okinawa and disappears.
After his release from prison, Kazuma discovers Haruka has gone radio silent, and sets out to find her and bring her home. As he has done in the past, he leaves the kids at Morning Glory alone to fend for themselves. After coming up empty in his search for Haruka, news reaches him that she’s been in a hit-and-run accident and is now in a coma. Even more shocking to him is discovering that during her three-year absence, Haruka gave birth to a little boy named Haruto.
Taking Haruto, he heads to the last place they know Haruka was: Hiroshima. Bent on finding Haruto’s father and making him take responsibility for the baby, he not only leaves Haruka in a coma in Kamurocho, but he drags a baby along with him for the ride. While these plots are what drive the Yakuza series, after six games, it should be obvious even to Kiryu that he has no business caring for kids, no matter how much he loves them. In the end, he’s forced to frake his own death to protect Haruka and Haruto, which only serves to shatter the family he built over the years.
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Kazuma Kiryu Paid a Heavy Price for His Found Family
In Like a Dragon Gaiden: The Man Who Erased His Name, which takes place concurrently with Yakuza: Like a Dragon, players see a whole new side of Kiryu. living under a false identity and working with the Daidoji as a secret agent named Joryu. The Daidoji have Kiryu in their thrall, with the threat of destroying the orphanage or harming the found family within it always keeping him in check.
Living apart from them takes its toll, and when he’s rewarded at the end of the game with a video of those he loves most, it marks one of the most emotional game endings in history as he breaks down ugly crying. He can never talk to them again, never see them, never let them know he’s alive, and it’s gut-wrenching.
The impact of his faked death hits even harder in Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth, when a Kiryu dying from cancer realizes he can’t even say goodbye to those he loves most. Makoto Date, who became one of Kiryu’s closest friends across the series, tried to stealthily arrange opportunities for Kiryu to at least see his friends and family one by one, even if he couldn’t interact with any of them, but the Daidoji eventually intervened to shut it down.
Kiryu felt like death was the only freedom, and all throughout Infinite Wealth, he pushes himself to the absolute limit, nearly killing himself in the process. Believing cancer was his death sentence, he rushed headlong into it, only to realize before all was said and done that he didn’t need to be a martyr anymore. Whether RGG Studios has any plans for future Kiryu to reunite with his found family in future Like a Dragon Yakuza games is impossible to tell. With Ichiban taking the mantle of the next generation’s Dragon, there’s not much story left for Kiryu and his found family to explore, or is there?
Yakuza
- Released
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September 5, 2006
- ESRB
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Mature 17+ // Blood, Sexual Themes, Strong Language, Use of Alcohol, Violence
- Developer(s)
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Ryu Ga Gotoku Studio
- Publisher(s)
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Sega
- Engine
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Dragon Engine
- Number of Players
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1