Lack of Female Enemies

[Hannah Montana]

I played Yakuza 0, Yakuza Kiwami, and Yakuza 2 Kiwami. I noticed there is a lack of female enemies that you can beat up on. Is Japan that socially conservative that they don't want to depict a male beating up a female even in a video game?

[Sensitive_Onion]

If you've played through all 3 games, then yeah, you should notice that Japanese is still very much a male dominant culture. You can still find instances of adult males being adopted by wealthy families who only have daughters so they have someone to pass down businesses to. The fact that Yakuza actually features a handful of strong female characters is already quite progressive.

[Lar Dass]

There is only one occurence where a female can be hit, and its in a substory
You will get a substory (in kiwami i think) of a person faking being robbed or something by their sibling then you beat the "guy" up and you actually find out its a woman who is trans, then the "guy" tells his "sister" to beat you up (who is actually a man turned woman trans) so you end up fighting both brother and sister regardless

[Unaimed Player]

"[...]There used to be official female [Yakuza] members in the past, but today there’s no statistics on the subject. From what I’ve heard, there used to be some female yakuza bosses during the 1940s to 1950s… so about 60 years ago. But I would say that the number of female members is probably close to zero." - retired marubo officer

As you can read in that quote there are almost no women in the Yakuza hence no (except for one) female oponents in the Yakuza games.

If you are interested in this subject I leave you the source for the quote and a link to a thesis on women in the yakuza.
Source for the quote: http://www.japansubculture.com/wives-of-the-yakuza/
Thesis: http://www.japansubculture.com/outsiders-amongst-outsiders-a-cultural-criminological-perspective-on-the-sub-subcultural-world-of-women-in-the-yakuza-underworld/

[Hannah Montana]

Notice how I said female enemies not female yakuza.
Sega had lots of opportunities to have female enemies but chose not to. There could have been a female opponent in the Coliseum tournaments but there isn't.

[WZ]

Yakuza isn't exactly the most PC / egalitarian series out there
It's got all the old tropes, baddies are male, damsels are in distress
You want something progressive, honestly, look elsewhere
It's not a game that wants to be taken seriously

Plus let's be honest, those heat moves on ladies?
The PC / holier than thou crowd would be waving pitchforks

[Robert F.]

Oh god, I can imagine a scenario where Kiryu doing a heat move by picking up a woman and throws at the pole in the groin...

[Sixtyfivekills]

Originally posted by WZ:

It's not a game that wants to be taken seriously

It kinda is though. But it isn't. But it is.

[Obi Wan Cannoli]

Sadly you can't beat the ♥♥♥♥ out of women, but there are women in power in and outside of the Yakuza circles, and Kiryu takes orders from them sometimes. I'd say that's a significant change compared to the previous games.

[CalicoJack]

you could play AkibasTrip ;)

[Chuck P]

Yakuza culture is definitely male dominant, and Kiryu is basically the embodiement of the old yakuza chivalrous ideal from the 50's-60's, which is why he wouldn't hit a woman. That said, there are a few female enemies scattered here and there through the series, like Nair in Yakuza 4.

I don't think it's fair to say that represents Japan as a whole though, there are plenty of japanese fighting games out there with female characters if beating up women is your thing.

[Hannah Montana]

Originally posted by Chuck P:

Yakuza culture is definitely male dominant, and Kiryu is basically the embodiement of the old yakuza chivalrous ideal from the 50's-60's, which is why he wouldn't hit a woman. That said, there are a few female enemies scattered here and there through the series, like Nair in Yakuza 4.

I don't think it's fair to say that represents Japan as a whole though, there are plenty of japanese fighting games out there with female characters if beating up women is your thing.

I read the wiki page for Nair and it says she is the only female character you can fight against in the entire Yakuza series.

[The Jagji]

Originally posted by Lar Dass:

There is only one occurence where a female can be hit, and its in a substory
You will get a substory (in kiwami i think) of a person faking being robbed or something by their sibling then you beat the "guy" up and you actually find out its a woman who is trans, then the "guy" tells his "sister" to beat you up (who is actually a man turned woman trans) so you end up fighting both brother and sister regardless

Yeah... that quest was lolzy as ♥♥♥♥. lol

[戳戳龙]

Kiryu Kazuma can't beat female,unless he didn't konw that person is a female

[Shakoris]

I thought it was Socially Liberal to have women beat on men but not the other way around.

[76561198383104026]

Originally posted by Hannah Montana:

I played Yakuza 0, Yakuza Kiwami, and Yakuza 2 Kiwami. I noticed there is a lack of female enemies that you can beat up on. Is Japan that socially conservative that they don't want to depict a male beating up a female even in a video game?

In games perhaps but not in Japanese movies where they simply dont care who they kill. Have you seen Battle Royale or Shogun Assassin ?