Masayoshi Yokoyama

Masayoshi Yokoyama is the head of RGG Studio and the executive director of Stranger Than Heaven, a longtime writer of the Like a Dragon (Yakuza) series who took over the studio in October 2021. The game's director is Mikinobu Abe.

Masayoshi Yokoyama is the head of RGG Studio and the executive director of Stranger Than Heaven: SEGA credits him as RGG Studio Head and Executive Director. He is the public face of the game, presenting the May 2026 Xbox showcase and confirming the Jan 15, 2027 date on stage at Summer Game Fest. The game's director, the person running day-to-day development, is Mikinobu Abe. Yokoyama has written the Like a Dragon (Yakuza) series since its early days and has led the studio since October 2021.

Quick facts

Role on the game	RGG Studio Head, Executive Director (also listed as executive producer)
Studio head since	October 2021
Earlier roles	Lead writer and Series Producer of Like a Dragon (Yakuza)
Game's director	Mikinobu Abe
Game's producer	Hiroyuki Sakamoto

Sources: RPG Site, Aug 28, 2026; RPG Site, Oct 8, 2021; AUTOMATON, Sep 29, 2026.

Who directs Stranger Than Heaven?

6:22 Mikinobu Abe is the game director; Yokoyama is the executive director above him, and Ryosuke Horii is chief director. Abe gave most of the story and combat interviews in October 2026, and Yokoyama the ones on casting, history and the studio's direction. The whole credit list is on RGG Studio. In the clip, IGN's Michael Higham, who calls Yokoyama the game's director, recalls asking him at Summer Game Fest 2026 about the history the game is set in and why people turned to criminal organizations.

His career

Yokoyama has been with the studio since the beginning and is best known as the series' writer. When Toshihiro Nagoshi left SEGA in 2021, Yokoyama, then lead writer and Series Producer, became head of RGG Studio, with the titles Studio Director and Executive Producer, and kept writing the stories with Takeuchi and Furuta. Game Informer's 2022 profile quotes him saying the studio never meant Nagoshi to be "the face of the company", and that RGG had other unannounced titles, some outside the Ryu Ga Gotoku universe. Stranger Than Heaven turned out to be one. No source read for this page gives the year he joined SEGA.

What Yokoyama has said about Stranger Than Heaven

Not a series entry: the Tojo Clan and Kamurocho appear, but "we don't think it would be right to call it a series entry" (TGS 2026). No cabaret club, no karaoke, different controls and progression. See Is Stranger Than Heaven a Yakuza Game?.
Scale: it will "differ entirely in both scale and gameplay" from Like a Dragon (Game Informer, Jan 27, 2026).
A trilogy in one: it was planned as three games and became one, after 6 to 7 years of development. See Development.
History: the team prioritizes telling "convincing lies" over accuracy; his example is Hotel New Akao in 1951 Atami, three years before the real hotel opened.
Casting: he learned from Yakuza 0 that a cast should rest only on whether they suit the character, and sometimes writes with an actor in mind. See Characters and Cast.
Tupac: the idea came from Snoop Dogg, and Yokoyama said the team wanted "to envision who Tupac might be now". See Tupac Shakur as Amaru.
No generative AI: none in the game at all, and no immediate plan to use it (Jun 11, 2026).
Shinjuku 1965: the last chapter holds a "tremendous secret", not yet shown. See Shinjuku 1965.

Frequently asked questions

Who is the director of Stranger Than Heaven? Mikinobu Abe directs Stranger Than Heaven. Masayoshi Yokoyama, head of RGG Studio, is its executive director, and Hiroyuki Sakamoto is producer.

What did Masayoshi Yokoyama work on before Stranger Than Heaven? The Like a Dragon (Yakuza) series, as its longtime writer and Series Producer. He has led RGG Studio since October 2021, and Stranger Than Heaven is the first new world the studio has made under him.

Did Yokoyama write Stranger Than Heaven? No writing credit for Stranger Than Heaven has been published as of Nov 3, 2026. Yokoyama has written the Like a Dragon stories, and he speaks for the game's story in interviews, but the final credits are not out.