Tojo Clan

The Tojo Clan, the yakuza syndicate of the Like a Dragon games, is founded by Makoto Daito in Stranger Than Heaven, as SEGA's May 6, 2026 broadcast showed. RGG Studio still says the game is a new title in the same world, not a series entry.

5:57 In Stranger Than Heaven, Makoto Daito founds the Tojo Clan, the yakuza syndicate that Kazuma Kiryu belongs to in the Like a Dragon (Yakuza) games: the May 6, 2026 Xbox Presents broadcast opened with Makoto announcing his own crime family, the "Tojo Clan," as "a place for people with nowhere else to go." Game Informer wrote that the game tells the founding of the Tojo Clan as it later appears in the series. RGG Studio, though, calls Stranger Than Heaven a new title set in the same fictional world rather than a series entry, and its director says it was not made as a prologue. How and when in the fifty-year story the founding happens had not been shown as of Nov 3, 2026. In the clip, from IGN's Jun 16, 2026 hands-on, Michael Higham says the Tojo Clan is part of the story, though the game is not exactly a prequel.

Quick facts

Founder in the game	Makoto Daito
First shown	Xbox Presents, May 6, 2026
Makoto's words	"A place for people with nowhere else to go"
The game's last era	Kamurocho, Shinjuku, 1965
Is Makoto Daito "Makoto Tojo"?	PC Gamer's speculation only; not confirmed
RGG's position	Same world, "not right to call it a series entry" (Yokoyama)
When in the story it is founded	Not shown as of Nov 3, 2026

Sources: CGMagazine, May 6, 2026; PC Gamer, May 6, 2026; AUTOMATON, Sep 29, 2026.

What is the Tojo Clan in Like a Dragon?

It is the syndicate at the heart of the series. Kazuma Kiryu, the "Dragon of Dojima," is one of its men: SEGA's own store text for Yakuza Kiwami 2 begins with Kiryu thinking his Tojo Clan days were behind him until the assassination of the clan's Fifth Chairman pulls him back, and Yakuza 3's text has the clan in a deadly power struggle that reaches Kiryu's orphanage in Okinawa. The series never told who founded the clan, or why. The games themselves are listed on Like a Dragon Games in Order.

How does Makoto found the Tojo Clan?

0:45 SEGA has shown the moment, not the road to it. Makoto names the clan in the broadcast's opening, and his phrase matches SEGA's summary of the whole game, a saga "of those with nowhere to go" and their struggle to find a home. Earlier in the story, in Kure in 1929, he is a member of another family, the Iwaki Family, as the "Red Oni" (Kure 1929). The game ends in 1965 in Kamurocho, the district of the later games. In the clip, from IGN's Oct 21, 2026 preview, Michael Higham says the story leads into where the Tojo Clan began, in 1960s Kamurocho.

0:21 Director Mikinobu Abe told Game Informer that the whole game began with that gap in the series: the team wondered, while making Yakuza games, who would create an organization like the Tojo Clan or the Omi Alliance, and why. He said the story first had a Japanese founder, and that Makoto's mixed heritage was added to give him a strong motive. The story so far is on Story. In the clip, from SEGA's Gamescom 2026 developer interview, a developer says in Japanese that the team had long wanted to tell how a yakuza organization came to be, from 1915 on.

A glowing arched gate reading KAMUROCHO over a narrow street of neon signs, with dark figures in suits in the foreground. — Silhouetted men walk beneath the lit Kamurocho gate into a neon-filled street at night in an official Steam store screenshot of Stranger Than Heaven RGG Studio and SEGA

Is Makoto Daito Makoto Tojo?

Not confirmed. PC Gamer noted after the May 6, 2026 broadcast that the Tojo Clan's founder in the series is named Makoto, Makoto Tojo, and suggested Makoto Daito may be him. That is PC Gamer's reading. SEGA and RGG Studio have not said whether Makoto Daito takes the name Tojo, as of Nov 3, 2026. More on Makoto Daito.

Does the Tojo Clan make it a Yakuza game?

0:13 RGG Studio says no. At Tokyo Game Show 2026, RGG Studio head Masayoshi Yokoyama said the Tojo Clan and places such as Kamurocho appear and the world is part of Like a Dragon's fictional world, but "we don't think it would be right to call it a series entry," AUTOMATON reported on Sep 29, 2026. He listed the differences: no cabaret club, no karaoke, different controls and different progression systems. In January 2026 he told Game Informer the game would differ entirely in scale and gameplay from the Like a Dragon entries. Abe said it was not meant as a prologue to the series but as something new. In the clip, director Abe tells IGN at Gamescom 2026 that the team sees it as a brand new game rather than a prequel.

Much of the press says prequel anyway: CGMagazine's headline says the broadcast confirms it's a Yakuza prequel, and AUTOMATON itself has called it "a prequel to the Like a Dragon series." Both are true at once: it shows the founding of the series' central syndicate, with a new cast, as a separate game. The full question is on Is Stranger Than Heaven a Yakuza Game?, and whether to play the series first is on Games to Play Before Stranger Than Heaven.

What is not known

As of Nov 3, 2026: in which era the clan is founded, who its first members are, whether Yu Shinjo has a part in it, whether the Omi Alliance's founding is shown too, and whether the 1965 "tremendous secret" concerns the clan.

Frequently asked questions

Who founded the Tojo Clan? In Stranger Than Heaven, Makoto Daito founds the Tojo Clan, as shown at the start of SEGA's May 6, 2026 broadcast. The Like a Dragon games had never shown its founding before.

Is Makoto Daito the founder of the Tojo Clan? Yes, Stranger Than Heaven shows Makoto Daito announcing the Tojo Clan. Whether he is the "Makoto Tojo" of the series' lore is only PC Gamer's speculation as of Nov 3, 2026.

Is Stranger Than Heaven connected to Yakuza? Yes. Stranger Than Heaven is set in the Like a Dragon world, with the Tojo Clan and Kamurocho, but RGG Studio calls it a new title rather than a series entry.

Is Stranger Than Heaven a Yakuza prequel? Stranger Than Heaven shows the Tojo Clan's founding, so many outlets call it a prequel. Its director says it was not made as a prologue, and RGG says it is not a series entry.

Is Kazuma Kiryu in Stranger Than Heaven? No Kiryu appears on Stranger Than Heaven's cast list as of Nov 3, 2026. His Japanese voice actor, Takaya Kuroda, plays a new character, Takeo Godai.