MakBak

This is not Instagram's automated spam filter. RGG West (rggstudiowest) has 111k followers and has been getting flooded with #REMOVEKAGAWA comments for days, but it hasn't deleted or restricted comments. RGG Studio (ryugagotokustudio) has 9k followers and comparatively few comments.

Instagram has features to limit, disable, and filter out comments by term, which have to be enabled and configured manually; Instagram typically won't automatically do these things for you as it's trying to maximize interactions and time spent on the app. Even if it were to, it doesn't add up for it to do them for the Japanese account when the volume is much greater for RGG West. Besides that, I don't see why Instagram's own spam filtering would be case-sensitive; that's easy to by pass, as you can see. Instagram also has a feature to delete comments,

#REMOVEKAGAWA

If you have the time, I recommend you contact SEGA's customer service team to also let our voices be heard. https://support.sega.com/hc/en-gb/requests/new

I have written a template that you only need to change/add your name to, should that be helpful.

Hello, my name is [NAME] and I am contacting you regarding the recent casting of Teruyuki Kagawa in the upcoming release Yakuza Kiwami 3.

Kagawa admitted to several instances of sexual harassment that he enacted in 2019.

As a long time fan of the series and someone who was otherwise looking forward to purchasing and playing Kiwami 3, I am extremely disappointed that SEGA and RGG Studios have made this casting decision. I will no longer be supporting the game as long as Kagawa remains a part of the project.

I am not the only customer who is withdrawing my support. There is a change.org petition that is also calling for the removal of Kagawa from the game.

https://www.change.org/p/remove-teruyuki-kagawa-from-his-role-as-goh-hamazaki-in-yakuza-kiwami-3

I hope you will consider the irreparable damage this casting decision has already done and will continue to do to the Yakuza: Like A Dragon franchise and its reputation, and that you will make the decision to remove Kagawa from the game.

I understand recasting and remodelling is not an easy task, but I also know that many customers including myself would rather have a delayed release than to see someone guilty of sexual harassment attached to this game.

Should Kagawa remain a part of Kiwami 3, I will not be purchasing the game, or any related releases.

Thank you for your consideration, and I hope to hear an update from you soon.

Regards

Hey,guys!

As you may or may not know, Hamazaki's new voice actor and face model, Teruyuki Kagawa, is a known sexual offender who admitted to sexually assaulting a woman back in 2019. There are also a few picture of him online where he's seen roughly handling a woman (can't personally confirm it's the same woman, but it doesn't matter in that case, he's still violent toward women).

Considering all of that, RGGS chose to cast him as Hamazaki anyway. The same studio that immediately recalled all original copies of Judgment 4 months after its original release in Japan, when Kyohei Hamura's voice actor and face model, Pierre Taki, got arrested on suspicion of cocaine use.

Making a pass for a sexual offender is appalling and unacceptable.

People are doing everything they can to get RGGS to acknowledge the situation and recast him (cancelling their preorders, messaging/tweeting people and account related to RGGS, contacting news outlets, etc.) Japanese fans are also very aware of the situation, and are also doing the same on their side.

The proof is a photograph showing Kagawa grinning as he grabs her hair. […] Newly obtained images reveal Kagawa, having grabbed the former mama's hair, burying his face in the nape of her neck and sniffing. Furthermore, when she turned to reprimand him, he wore a sullen expression and proceeded to stick his fingers under her armpit to sniff that scent. (Daily Shincho 2022-12-27)

Teruyuki Kagawa, the current face and voice of Goh Hamazaki, SAed two women that night, not one. “Mirei” (pseudonym) and the club’s former mama. The mama is actually the woman in the photos. This is the story behind them. Note that unlike with Mirei, Kagawa (via his agency) outright refused to apologize to the mama and discredited her story as a “distortion of logic” and “past the statute of limitations.” I don’t want to hear another word about he “apologized” and “changed” and “deserves redemption.”

I have hesitated to share images and descriptions so as to not retraumatize survivors like myself, but I think it is extremely important to have the details so they can't be dismissed, bearing in mind what he did to Mirei was even worse.