Wealthy socialite and president of the powerful financial consulting firm "Love Emperor", not to mention owner and sponsor of underground gambling tournaments like those onboard Espoir. Hyōdō Kazutaka is believed to be seventy years old and worth several hundred billion yen. Driven mad by wealth, conventional hobbies fail to entertain him, so he funds gambling tournaments to watch the destitute of society struggle against overwhelming terror and despair.  (Source: Wikipedia)

Itou Kaiji is a bum who steals car emblems and slashes tires on what seems to be a regular basis. This routine changes one day when he is paid a visit by a man in a trench-coat. Once the two get talking, it seems that the visitor (Calling himself Endou) is a debt collector. The reason for his visit is an unpaid loan which Kaiji had previously co-signed for a work-mate (Furuhata Takeshi). The original loan was 300,000 yen and once Takeshi had disappeared, the loan then fell on Kaiji. 
Kaiji is then told of a way to clear the interest compounded debt (which stood at 3,850,000 yen), which involved getting on a boat with others in his position. Once on the boat the debtors would then have to gamble with loaned money, which would end with a few winning, and others getting into deeper debt and having to work to pay off their debts. After some coercion Kaiji accepts a position on the boat, in order to clear his debt and make a bit of money as well...

__Birth Place:__ Naha, Okinawa, Japan
__Height:__ 176cm

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Non-anime roles:  Clyde Blackstorm (older) in "Unlimited Saga" (VG)  Josef in "Unlimited Saga" (VG)  

Several months after the events of the first season, Kaiji, with his appendages reattached and his debt now run up to 9.5 million yen, is still desperately seeking the elusive big score that will cancel all of his markers. Unbeknownst to him, Hyodo’s company, the Teiai Corporation, is actively searching for Kaiji, and have sent Kaiji’s old “friend” Endoh, who entered him in the high stakes games in the past, to find him. 
The two meet when Kaiji chances to walk in front of Endoh’s car at a stop light, and thinking that he has found the answer to his prayers, Kaiji gets in the car with him. While Kaiji and Endoh are “happy” to see one another, and both want to see Kaiji’s debt repaid, their means to that goal couldn’t be more different. 
Instead of leading Kaiji to the big score, Endoh delivers him drugged and docile to the Teiai Corporation’s secret underground labor camp where Kaiji will have an opportunity to repay his debt… with 15 years of hard labor. 
(Source: Sea Slugs)

Ne'er-do-well Kaiji Itou's shiftless existence is suddenly rattled by a visit from the yakuza. Burdened by debt and resentment, Kaiji is coerced into gambling for his worthless life. As the stakes grow higher and the rules become increasingly more bizarre, Kaiji must finally take the future into his own hands! 
(Source: Denpa) 
Note: Won the 22nd Kodansha Manga Award for general manga in 1998.

Teiai Group is one of Japan's largest firms. Yukio Tonegawa, a man with a larger-than-life presence and sharp intellect, works as the right-hand man of Chairman Kazutaka Hyodo. One day, the chairman commands Tonegawa to spearhead "Game of Death," an evil project that employs debtors. He rallies his direct reports and scrambles to form Team Tonegawa, only to encounter a barrage of challenges from the erratic chairman and his disloyal employees, ultimately leading to his demotion.
 
Team Tonegawa is bombarded with an onslaught of wide-ranging problems! "Mr. Tonegawa - Middle Management Blues -" is a spinoff of "Kaiji," the hit manga series that boasts a total circulation of over 20 million printed copies.
 
(Source: Nippon TV) 

Note: Episode 14-15, parts of 18, and parts of 20-23 of this entry adapts the Kaiji spin-off manga Ichinichi Gaishutsuroku Hanchou.

After Kaiji's showdown with Chairman Hyoudou at the Starside Hotel, he's forced into labour at an underground mine. With his meagre daily wage, he'll be working for decades to repay his debt unless he does something about his miserable situation.
Kaiji decides to wager his earnings in an underground dice game for a ticket to get out of the mine for a limited period of time. But even if he surfaces, he only has one chance to win it big: by challenging the unbeatable pachinko machine nicknamed "The Bog."



Teiai Group is one of Japan's largest firms. Yukio Tonegawa, a man with a larger-than-life presence and sharp intellect, works as the right-hand man of Chairman Kazutaka Hyodo. One day, the chairman commands Tonegawa to spearhead "Game of Death," an evil project that employs debtors. He rallies his direct reports and scrambles to form Team Tonegawa, only to encounter a barrage of challenges from the erratic chairman and his disloyal employees, ultimately leading to his demotion. 
 
Team Tonegawa is bombarded with an onslaught of wide-ranging problems! "Mr. Tonegawa - Middle Management Blues -" is a spinoff of "Kaiji," the hit manga series that boasts a total circulation of over 20 million printed copies. 
 
(Source: Nippon TV)
 
Includes 9 bonus chapters.

A tribute manga book to the author Nobuyuki Fukumoto with the cooperation of Fukumoto himself. All characters shown in this series are from previous manga Fukumoto has published.

Kazutaka Hyoudou