Japanese video game developer Sega's Yakuza media franchise, known as Ryū ga Gotoku in its native Japan and other Asian territories, features an extensive cast of characters. This article describes notable characters who appear in the Yakuza main series video games and associated remasters or remakes, with characters sorted by organizations or groups according to the original works. The English-language adaptation equivalents are mentioned when available.
A promotional illustration of a number of characters from the Yakuza series in a popularity contest launched by Sega in 2018. From left to right: Akira "Nishiki" Nishikiyama, Makoto Date, Haruka Sawamura, Taiga Saejima, Kazuma Kiryu, Goro Majima, Shun Akiyama, and Ryuji Goda.
Goro Majima is a major recurring character in Sega's Like a Dragon video game series, previously known as Yakuza outside of Japan. He is one of the main playable protagonists of Yakuza 0 and Yakuza: Dead Souls, as well as the Majima Saga of Yakuza Kiwami 2. Introduced as a member of the Tojo Clan and patriarch of its subsidiary group, the Majima Family as well as second-in-command of the Shimano Family, nicknamed "Mad Dog of Shimano", he develops a sadomasochistic obsession with the protagonist Kazuma Kiryu. He continually seeks to fight him, seeing him as the perfect rival, but eventually bonds with him across the franchise and becomes an important ally of his. He is also the sworn brother of Taiga Saejima who is one of the protagonists of Yakuza 4 and Yakuza 5. Majima's character is explored in more detail during the prequel Yakuza 0, in which he is a 24-year-old former Yakuza and a playable protagonist along with Kiryu. In this game, Majima has a much calmer and serious demeanor that develops into his standard sadomasochistic one during a war between a number of families in a fight for a patch of land known as the Empty Lot. Majima also appears in the spin-off Dead Souls as well as the crossover Project X Zone 2.