I Visited Yakuza's Real-Life Kamurocho, And Somehow Avoided an Ass Stomping | Push Square

pushsquare.com:

In the latest trailer for Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth, protagonist Ichiban Kasuga describes his home town of Kamurocho as the “armpit of Tokyo”. During a recent visit to the capital, I wanted to see if the real-life location the virtual sandbox is based on lived up to that description. There was no point in visiting during the day – this nocturnal slice of Japanese life awakens at night – so I patiently waited until sunset before boarding a train in the general direction of Kabukicho, the Shinjuku district upon which the familiar Yakuza city is inspired.

Related Articles

Or stranger

First, a little background: even though the relentless cadence of releases has impeded my overall ability to keep up with the Like a Dragon franchise, I’m a long-time fan. I started with the original PS2 entry, which SEGA was hoping would rival the untouchable Grand Theft Auto franchise at the time. While that success never came to pass – in fact, the franchise would fall upon torrid times during the PS3 era, with only Sony’s intervention enabling Yakuza 5 to get localised – I was a strong supporter throughout, even reviewing the schlocky spin-off Yakuza: Dead Souls. (In fact, I also have an imported copy of that one, as I never expected it to release overseas.)

Kabukicho, then, was an important part of my Tokyo travel itinerary – essential, in fact. Initially, it wasn’t quite what I expected: despite the clock ticking past 10PM, the streets were practically abandoned, save for some smokers standing outside their hotels and the ever-present buzz of Japan’s omnipresent convenience stores. (Sorry, it was only 7-ELEVEN and Family Mart chains here – no Poppos like in the game.)

I had been expecting seedy, but in this initial 30-minute