Eiji Mitamura

Eiji Mitamura (, Mitamura Eiji) is a secondary antagonist featured in Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth. He is the former leader of Bleach Japan's Tokyo branch and a former reporter of the Touto Press.
==Profile ==
===Appearance===
Eiji's appearance is modeled after his face actor, . He is a young man of average build, with dark hair parted down the middle. He spends much of his time stuck in a wheelchair, which is later revealed to be part of his ruse to gain Ichiban Kasuga's trust. By the time Bryce and Ebina are defeated, Eiji appears disheveled.
====Attire====
During his time spent in a wheelchair, Eiji wears a white t-shirt and jeans. After the reveal of his betrayal, he exchanges the disguise for a black Hawaiian patterned shirt with blue flowers and dark jeans. He wears a black hoodie in Japan.
====Personality====
Initially, Eiji appears to be a soft-spoken but bold and intelligent man, protecting Ichiban Kasuga from the police and assisting him in his search for Akane Kishida with his computer skills; however, this is all revealed to be a ruse. In reality, Eiji is scheming and hateful, willing to do whatever it takes to get revenge on the Arakawa Family and completely destroying the yakuza as a whole.
==Background==
Eiji used to work for a newspaper, but was let go after he was charged with vehicular assault, which he claimed he was framed for by the Arakawa Family. Fueled with intense hatred for the yakuza, he joined up with Bleach Japan afterwards, and eventually was granted leadership of its Tokyo division by Ryo Aoki.
At some point, Eiji allied himself with Masataka Ebina of the Seiryu Clan; as he shared Mitamura's grudge towards the yakuza.
Since 2020, Eiji worked with Chitose Fujinomiya on the Tatara Channel, with Eiji writing the scripts and providing sources, while Fujinomiya voice acted Tatara. The channel presented itself as a source of investigative journalism, but evolved into a propaganda outlet run by Ebina and Eiji, using selective and dishonestly edited scripts. Because Chitose had used the channel to expose wrongdoings by the Fujinomiya Group run by her father, Eiji was able to coerce her into continuing the channel under the threat of exposing her identity to her family.
==Involvement==
===Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth: 2023 ===
Through the Tatara Channel, Eiji falsely framed Ichiban Kasuga as using his position at Hello Work to recruit ex-yakuza, when in reality he was simply helping them find employment.
On Ebina's orders, Eiji was sent to spy on Kasuga during his trip to Hawaii. In order to more easily gain Kasuga's sympathies, Eiji faked being in a wheelchair due to Kasuga's past experience with caring for wheelchair users. In order to pull off the act convincingly, Eiji made himself actually immobile by using Lidocaine, a fast-acting localized aesthetic. The two first met on the plane and spent some time together in Hawaii later in the day, including Eiji foiling a robbery attempt by Eric Tomizawa, and later Kasuga protecting Eiji during his first confrontation with Tomizawa's boss, Yutaka Yamai.
While Kasuga was in Hawaii in order to find Akane Kishida, his mother, the Seiryu Clan - along with their local allies in Palekana - were trying to kidnap her and Lani Mililani. Continuing to coerce Chitose, Eiji dispatched her as a spy to infiltrate Kasuga's party and gain their trust, including having her pretend to be Akane's housekeeper. Later, Kasuga reconnects with Eiji, and he joins his party at the Daidoji Faction safe house.
When Akane and Lani are found and brought to the safe house, Chitose notices Eiji about to make a call. At this point, her guilt at cooperating with him and endangering Akane and Lani becomes too much, and she exposes Eiji as a double agent who is in fact currently on a video call with Barracudas leader Dwight Mendez (the Barracudas were also working under Palekana). Unfortunately, this is too late to prevent the Barracudas from storming the safe house, killing Kihei Hanawa and Wong Tou, kidnapping Lani, and helping Eiji escape.
Eiji later has a confrontation with Kasuga's party at a club, wherein Chitose finally turns on him for good, and Eiji sadistically mocks Kasuga by pretending to kill Lani. He continues to run the Tatara Channel even without Chitose's cooperation (using a substitute voice actor), including exposing Kazuma Kiryu's survival, and misrepresenting a video of him meeting with Daigo Dojima, Taiga Saejima and Goro Majima as him attempting to revive the Tojo Clan, to smear Kiryu's name.
At the end of the game, Eiji has returned to Japan, and is the target of intense hatred due to his exposed involvement in the Tatara Channel, causing many issues for ex-yakuza over the years. Despite this, Kasuga safely escorts him to the police station to turn him in. Stunned by Kasuga's kindness and willingness to forgive despite all that's happened, Eiji thanks him, and the two's last exchange is "Bon voyage", the very term Eiji introduced himself to Kasuga with.
== Gallery==
LADIW - Character Render - Eiji Mitamura.png|Full-body Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth render of Eiji.
LADIW - Character Gallery - Eiji Mitamura 01.png|Eiji's club appearance.
LADIW - Character Gallery - Eiji Mitamura 02.png|Eiji viewing the Tatara Channel's final stream.
LADIW - Character Gallery - Eiji Mitamura 03.png|Eiji's disheveled appearance.
Category:Bleach Japan
Category:Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth Characters
Category:Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth Antagonists
Category:Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth Support Characters