Makoto Daito

1:38 Makoto Daito is the protagonist of Stranger Than Heaven, portrayed by Yu Shirota: "a half-Japanese, half-American man" in SEGA's words, who loses both parents in San Francisco, is wrongly accused of a crime and stows away on a ship to his mother's homeland in 1915. The game follows him through five eras and cities from 1915 to 1965: a young outsider in Kokura, the yakuza "Red Oni" of the Iwaki Family in Kure, a showman who stages concerts across Japan, and, as the May 6, 2026 Xbox Presents showed, the founder of the Tojo Clan. Everything below comes from SEGA, RGG Studio and previews of pre-release builds; the full story is not out until Jan 15, 2027. The clip is director Mikinobu Abe telling IGN at Gamescom 2026 that the game follows Makoto's 50-year search for a home, from 1915 to 1965.

Quick facts

Sources: SEGA: cast page; Xbox Wire, May 6, 2026; Steam store page, Nov 3, 2026; RPG Site, Sep 13, 2026.

Who is Makoto Daito?

0:38 Makoto grows up in San Francisco, persecuted for his mixed heritage. After losing both parents he sneaks aboard a ship at night bound for Japan (SEGA, May 7, 2026). In the prologue he is wrongly accused of a crime, murder according to Game Rant, and flees police to the last ship leaving the bay; that chase is the game's combat tutorial (IGN, Oct 21, 2026). On board he meets Yu Shinjo and the smuggler Orpheus, who catches the two boys stowing away and takes them to Japan. His aim at first is "simply to survive and carve out a place for himself," Xbox Wire wrote. See San Francisco 1915. The clip is Game Rant's account of the prologue in the October 2026 preview build.

Director Mikinobu Abe said the founder in the first story outline was Japanese; mixed heritage was added to give him a strong motive (Game Informer, Oct 21, 2026).

Makoto in each era

2:38 Kokura, 1915. Still a young man in an unfamiliar land, Makoto is called "ketō," a period slur for Westerners he does not understand at first, Shirota told Game Informer. In the October 2026 preview build he runs jobs for Orpheus, meets Tae Matsumoto where she works, and storms an ironworks mill to rescue her from the Oki Clan, ending in a boss fight with Shimura (Game Informer, Oct 21, 2026). The Kokura boss Heigo Yashima mentors him. See Kokura 1915. In the clip IGN's Michael Higham describes the Kokura story, Tae and the factory raid in the October 2026 preview build.

0:00 Kure, 1929. Fifteen years on, Makoto joins the Iwaki Family, Hiroshima's strongest organization, and becomes the "Red Oni," "a name to be respected and feared among the families" (Xbox Wire, May 6, 2026). He has bleached hair in this era, and Abe pointed to a Tokyo Game Show 2026 cutscene between Daito and Tetsuya Hama for hints about why. See Kure 1929 and Genzo Iwaki. The clip is SEGA's Kure In-Depth Look.

Minami, 1943. By the wartime Osaka sequence, locals greet him with smiles because of his organized crime and show business work (Game Informer, Oct 21, 2026). See Minami 1943.

Atami, 1951, and Shinjuku, 1965. Little has been shown. Yokoyama teased a "tremendous secret" in the 1965 chapter and showed no gameplay of it. See Atami 1951 and Shinjuku 1965.

Makoto the showman

18:38 Alongside the yakuza story, a mentor finds Makoto's musical talent and he becomes a showman (impresario) who sings and runs shows across Japan (SEGA official site). Abe credits him with a "keen ability to find the music in everyday life" (Xbox Wire): he records street sounds, composes songs, scouts performers and stages concerts. See Showbiz. The clip is Abe in the May 6, 2026 Xbox Presents broadcast, with footage of Makoto recording sounds.

Does Makoto speak English or Japanese?

0:00 Both, and the balance moves. Abe said Makoto starts the game thinking and speaking more in English, and his battle cries shift from English to Japanese as the years pass; his body language, personal space and lip animation also grow more Japanese over the eras (Game Informer, Oct 21, 2026). Shirota performed regional accents for Hiroshima and Osaka. See Languages and Age Rating. The clip is SEGA's Kokura In-Depth Look, which says English is his native language, so he starts the story not really understanding Japanese.

Is Makoto Daito the founder of the Tojo Clan?

0:21 The May 6, 2026 Xbox Presents opened with Makoto founding the Tojo Clan, the syndicate of the Like a Dragon (Yakuza) series, and Game Informer's June preview says the game tells that founding. Abe said the starting point was the team's question of who would create such an organization, and why. PC Gamer noted that the Tojo Clan's founder in the series is named Makoto and speculated that Daito becomes "Makoto Tojo" (PC Gamer, May 6, 2026); SEGA has not said so. See Tojo Clan. The clip is SEGA's Gamescom 2026 developer interview, in which a developer says in Japanese that the team had long wanted to tell how such a yakuza organization came to be, from 1915 onward.

Yu Shirota and why he was cast

9:58 Yokoyama chose Yu Shirota as a fit for Daito's estranged, ambiguous character, and both he and Dean Fujioka have musical backgrounds, which matters in a game about singing (AUTOMATON, Jun 23, 2026). Shirota, raised partly in Spain, drew on his own experience of being an outsider in both Spain and Japan, and English is his third language (Game Informer, Oct 21, 2026). Motion capture and voice were recorded with him. He closed SEGA's Tokyo Game Show 2026 stages with Fujioka on Sep 21, 2026. In the clip IGN's Michael Higham recalls Shirota on bringing his music and acting careers, and his own mixed heritage, to the role.

SEGA released a Character Intro trailer for Makoto, with one for Shinjo, on Sep 13, 2026.

Frequently asked questions

Who is the main character in Stranger Than Heaven? Makoto Daito, portrayed by Yu Shirota. Stranger Than Heaven follows him from San Francisco in 1915 to Shinjuku in 1965.

Who plays Makoto Daito? Yu Shirota, a Japanese actor and singer, both performs and voices Makoto in Stranger Than Heaven. Yokoyama cast him for the character's estranged, ambiguous nature.

Is Makoto Daito half American? Yes. In Stranger Than Heaven he is the son of an American father and a Japanese mother, raised in San Francisco.

What is the Red Oni in Stranger Than Heaven? It is the name Makoto earns in Kure in 1929 after joining the Iwaki Family, a name "to be respected and feared among the families," per Xbox Wire's recap of Stranger Than Heaven.

Is Makoto Daito Makoto Tojo? Not confirmed. Stranger Than Heaven shows Makoto founding the Tojo Clan, and PC Gamer speculated he becomes Makoto Tojo, but SEGA has not said so as of Nov 3, 2026.

Sources

• STRANGER THAN HEAVEN: Cast, SEGA, undated
• STRANGER THAN HEAVEN official site, SEGA, undated
• Stranger Than Heaven Reveals New Info On Key Characters And Show Business Theme, Worthplaying (SEGA press release), Sep 25, 2026
• SEGA and Xbox raise the curtain on "Stranger Than Heaven", Game Developer (SEGA press release), May 7, 2026
• STRANGER THAN HEAVEN release announcement, SEGA, Jun 8, 2026
• Xbox Presents: A Special Look at Stranger Than Heaven, Xbox Wire, May 6, 2026
• Stranger Than Heaven: The Final Preview, IGN, Oct 21, 2026
• One Man's Story Of Biculturalism, Music, Fitting In, And Fighting, Game Informer, Oct 21, 2026
• Stranger Than Heaven sure looks like a Yakuza series prequel, PC Gamer, May 6, 2026
• Stranger Than Heaven executive director talks about casting philosophy learned from Yakuza 0, AUTOMATON, Jun 23, 2026
• Stranger Than Heaven TGS 2026 Onstage Guest Lineup Revealed, Sakura Index (SEGA press release), Aug 29, 2026
• Stranger Than Heaven introduces Makoto Daito and Yu Shinjo in new character trailers, RPG Site, Sep 13, 2026
• STRANGER THAN HEAVEN on Steam, Valve, Nov 3, 2026
• How Stranger Than Heaven's Brutal Combat Borrows From Classic Yakuza Cinema | gamescom2026, IGN, Aug 29, 2026 (video)
• Stranger Than Heaven: 50 Years of Japan in One Game - Hands-On Preview, GameRant, Oct 21, 2026 (video)
• Stranger Than Heaven Finally Won Me Over | Extended Hands-On Preview, IGN, Oct 21, 2026 (video)
• STRANGER THAN HEAVEN | 1929 Kure, Hiroshima In-Depth Look, SEGA, Sep 30, 2026 (video)
• Xbox Presents: A Special Look at STRANGER THAN HEAVEN, RGG Studio (official), May 7, 2026 (video)
• STRANGER THAN HEAVEN | 1915 Kokura, Fukuoka - In-Depth Look, SEGA, Sep 28, 2026 (video)
• STRANGER THAN HEAVEN Developer Interview | gamescom 2026, SEGA, Oct 19, 2026 (video)