Haruka Sawamura

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Haruka Sawamura
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My dream was to become a star. But I had another dream. To live in happiness with the ones I hold dearest. Standing on this stage today, I've finally realized what is most important to me. So I can't go on singing any longer. Kazuma Kiryu is family to me.

— Haruka during her idol debut in Yakuza 5

Haruka Sawamura (澤村 遥, Sawamura Haruka) is one of the central characters of the Yakuza series and one of the five main playable protagonists of Yakuza 5.

Haruka briefly had a career as a pop idol, but now resides in Okinawa at Morning Glory Orphanage with her son, Haruto Sawamura, and Yuta Usami.

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Appearance

Haruka's appearance changes significantly throughout the series as she ages. She is first seen as a young pre-teen girl, with straight, shoulder-length black hair held back with barettes. In subsequent games, she grows her hair out long, and in in Yakuza 5 and Yakuza 6 she is seen with it tied it back into a ponytail.

Attire

Haruka's outfit of choice most often consists of a skirt and hooded sweatshirt or vest with boots. With each iteration, her colour scheme mostly stays consistent with Kiryu's, wearing red and white. In Yakuza/Kiwami she wears a plain white hoodie and red pleated skirt. In Yakuza 2/Kiwami 2, she wears a striped red and white shirt beneath a white vest and a pair of tan suede boots.

By Yakuza 3, Yakuza 4, and Yakuza: Dead Souls she has settled into her new life in Okinawa, and is mostly seen in either her school uniform, or a layered white and red shirt, with jean shorts and sandals.

In Yakuza 5 and Yakuza 6, Haruka wears a white hoodie, half-zipped over a red shirt. She wears a pair of laced brown leather boots and a short jean skirt. In Yakuza 5, she wears black tights under her skirt, while in the majority of Yakuza 6 her legs are bare.

Haruka also has a variety of Idol costumes that she wears during her performances for both the Princess League and her debut concert, with two different casual event outfits and four different on-stage costumes plus climax heat variants.

Personality

Even as a young child, Haruka is calm and level-headed, often acting as a grounding force for her foster father, Kazuma Kiryu. Despite her age, Kiryu commonly leans on her for support with the other children at the orphanage. She is incredibly self-reliant and mature, seeking out work in order to help support her adoptive family, running errands on her own, cooking meals, and picking up the slack where Kiryu falls short. Her maturity extends to aspects of the nightlife, such as teasing Kiryu and Makoto Date by pretending to not know what a "soapland" is.

She can be shy and doesn't always get on well with children her own age due to her maturity. Her closest relationships tend to be with older paternal figures such as Kiryu and Shun Akiyama, though she latches onto maternal figures such as Mirei Park and Kaoru Sayama just as easily. She further expresses her inability to easily make friends her own age when she moves to Sotenbori in Yakuza 5, though it is also in part due to her growing fame.

Haruka is normally quite selfless - one of many ways she takes after Kiryu - though she does display her more selfish, bratty side several times, often relative to whenever Kiryu is faced with leaving her behind.

She is observant, and quick to pick up on subtleties, and usually able to tell if people are lying, which could be a result of the trauma she has experienced throughout her life. In spite of this, her optimistic outlook on life is a huge draw for others and gains the admiration of many during her brief stint as an idol.

Background

Haruka was born to Yumi Sawamura and Kyohei Jingu in 1996. She survived an early attempt on her and Yumi's lives and grew up away from her parents in the safety of Sunflower Orphanage.

Involvement

Yakuza/Yakuza Kiwami: 1995-2005

Haruka is a young girl searching for her mother, Mizuki, whom evidence seems to indicate is Yumi's younger sister. Haruka is also somehow connected to the money that went missing before Kiryu's release. A combination of these reasons and pure chance leave Haruka in Kiryu's tentative custody. Before arriving in Kamurocho, she too lived at the Sunflower Orphanage. Kiryu and Haruka get along well and both search for Mizuki and Yumi. She and Kiryu discovered that Yumi is actually Haruka's mother, and that Kyohei Jingu, a politician who wanted the 10 billion yen, was her biological father. At Ares, she found her mother. It was a happy reunion until Jingu's arrival. Jingu was planning to use the 10 billion yen to reach to the top of the nation. Kiryu defeats Jingu and Nishikiyama arrives, though Kiryu eventually defeats him as well. Jingu suddenly recovered and got up, aiming his gun at Kiryu intending to shoot him - he is interrupted by Yumi, who jumps in front of him and gets shot instead. Nishikiyama then stabs Jingu, killing him while Yumi herself dies as well. Haruka was then taken in by Kiryu, who thus became her adoptive father.

Yakuza 2/Yakuza Kiwami 2: 2006

After her mother's death at the hands of her father (who was killed by Nishiki), Kiryu took custody of her as a father figure/adoptive father, although she affectionately calls him ojisan (おじさん) the Japanese equivalent for both "Sir" and "Uncle". When Terada was killed by the Omi Alliance; Haruka stayed at home. However, she was kidnapped by Sengoku, Patriarch of Omi Alliance's Sengoku Family, and Ryūji Goda, Patriarch of Omi Alliance's Go-Ryu Clan and son of Jin Goda, The Fifth Chairman of Omi Alliance. In the end she was saved by Kiryu and thanked Terada who sacrificed himself to save Kiryu.

Yakuza 3: 2007-2009

Haruka is 11 (going on 12) and is living in Morning Glory Orphanage with the orphans and Kiryu. Being older and a bit more mature, she tends to take on much of the responsibilities as the role of a surrogate mother or older sister. Following the events of the second game, Haruka accompanied Kiryu to say goodbye to Yuya and Kazuki because they were going to Okinawa to run an orphanage. She became 11 years old and help the orphans with Kiryu. Peace was broken when Nakahara, Patriarch of the Nakahara Family (who owns the land where the orphanage is located) and Daigo Dojima, the Sixth Chairman of the Tojo Clan were shot. In order to figure out who was the perpetrator, Kiryu went away from the orphanage for a while, during which the orphanage was attacked by Yoshitaka Mine and the Tamashiro Family of Tojo Clan, where Haruka managed to defend the orphans. After surviving the demolition of the orphanage, Haruka decided to join Kiryu and returned to Kamurocho.

Yakuza 4: 2010

A year after Yakuza 3, Haruka is now 13 years old, and is in in junior high (as can clearly be seen by the school uniform she wears).

Despite her young age, she still acts as one of the main caretakers for the children at Morning Glory. She discovers Taiga Saejima, an escaped convict that killed 18 men in Ueno Seiwa Clan, washed up on the beach near the orphanage after his escape.

When she hears the name "Hamazaki" mentioned when Saejima and Kiryu fight, she remembers Goh Hamazaki, the man who stabbed Kiryu at the end of Yakuza 3. After Saejima leaves, Haruka and Kiryu are alone. However, when she visits the store, she sees Goh Hamazaki. She eavesdrops on Kiryu and Hamazaki about the 10 billion yen that her father Jingu stole back in the day. When Hamazaki approached the children, she tells him to stay away, showing hostility. But at the hospital, Hamazaki was shot in the back and told Haruka to tell Kiryu and Saejima to "protect the Tojo Clan from the police."

She is seen with Kiryu at the end of the game, accompanying Saejima for the inauguration ceremony of the Saejima Family.

Yakuza 5: 2012

Haruka has left the orphanage in Okinawa and is currently in Osaka, pursuing her childhood dream of becoming an idol. She's managed by Mirei Park, of the Dyna Chair talent agency, who had discovered Haruka a year prior during a visit to the orphanage; there she asked Kiryu's permission to take Haruka under her wing, seeing in her the potential be a star.

Throughout the game, Haruka improves her standing as an idol through performances, interviews, and intensive training.

After Mirei Park is found dead due to an apparent suicide, Haruka uncovers the foul play behind her death with help from Akiyama.

Yakuza 6: 2016

At the beginning of the game, continuing the events of the fifth installation, Haruka revealed in a concert that she's going to quit the idol business, revealing Kiryu as her father figure in the process. After the concert, both Kiryu and Haruka reunited in the middle of a snowfall, and she returned to Morning Glory Orphanage subsequently, much to the public out cry.

Some time later, she left the orphanage, much to Kiryu's discontent. After leaving the orphanage, she was involved in an accident that knocked her unconscious. Date later revealed that during the accident, she was protecting someone, who turned out to be her son.

Later on, it was revealed that Haruka was in Hiroshima before the accident. Three years prior to the events of the game, she worked at Kiyomi's bar, after she found out that Haruka didn't have anywhere to go to at Hiroshima. There, she met Yuta Usami, a member of the Hirose Family, and conceived Haruto during her term with Yuta.

Sometime during her treatment, she was moved from Touto University hospital to a police-owned hospital in order to ensure her safety.

Other Media

Yakuza: Dead Souls

One year after Yakuza 4, a letter arrives from Morning Glory with an invitation to a retirement party. Kiryu sends Haruka to go in his stead cause he can't leave the other children alone, however the letter was a trap to lure Kiryu to Kamorocho and Haruka is kidnapped by Tetsu Nikaidō. Phoning Kiryu to prove he has kidnapped Haruka, Tetsu lures Kiryu into the zombie outbreak trying to get revenge for what the Tojo did to the Omi Alliance.

At the end of the game Kiryu and Ryuji Goda arrived and rescue Haruka and during the ending they go to get Takoyaki from Ryuji's store.

Trivia

• Haruka is the first playable female character in the series.
• Haruka is mentioned in Project X Zone 2 when Kiryu and Majima talk with Alisa from the God Eater series about her clothes.

See Also

• Haruka's Trust, a recurring minigame in the Yakuza series