Template:Polka
— Akiyama to Kanai in Yakuza 5Dreams are passed on from person to person like that. That's why I can't let you crush Haruka's dream!
Shun Akiyama is a relative newcomer to the series, being introduced in Yakuza 4. A successful entrepreneur called the "Lifeline of Kamurocho", he runs Sky Finance, a loan agency that offers people loans based not on their credit rating, but on their commitment to get that loan. When the skeletons of the past come out of the closet, Akiyama becomes the first witness of an old grudge between the law and the families of the Tojo and Ueno Seiwa.
Biography and early life
Born in 1978, Akiyama was considered a golden boy when he was younger, one of the privileged youth who would aspire to do great things. He entered Touto University and graduated with top-honors and a business (law in western releases) degree at the top of his class. His talents were sought after by Akihiro Yamori, the head of the Toto Bank's investment branch, who offered Akiyama a position which he accepted.
He quickly became the top bank employee in the investment department. He rose up in the ranks, and even started dating his fellow employee Eri, at the behest of Yamori, and was eventually engaged.
However, disaster struck in the Spring of 2005 when he was fired from his job with charges of internal theft, after it was discovered that a sum of ¥1,000,000 was deposited into his savings account. Toto Bank determined that he had stolen the money. The money was, in fact, part of a laundering scheme carried out by Kyohei Jingu before the events of Yakuza 1. Yamori was the one who sold out Akiyama, and in fact planned the whole thing from the start.
Although Akiyama was innocent, there was no way for him to win a political battle against a powerful bank corporation. Yamori was also very thorough in his plot to frame Akiyama, destroying all traces of his involvement. Akiyama spent all of his life savings trying prove himself innocent. As a result, he became homeless, and his fiancée left him and married the man who had fired him.
One day, during the winter of 2005, as he was sleeping on streets of Theater Square, the ¥10,000,000,000 that had been stolen from Akira Niskihiyama and Jingu and hidden away in a safe on the 60th floor of Millennium Tower rained down in front of him after the explosion at Millennium Tower.
Akiyama grabbed as much money as he could during this "second chance that God has given him". However, he nearly loses that second chance when thugs attacked him and stole the money. Hiroaki Arai, seeing the man's plight, gets him his money back from the muggers. Akiyama felt indebted to Arai for the act of kindness. Ironically enough, the money that he got was the exact amount he was accused of stealing.
Akiyama was a genius when it came to investment and finance, and he knew that the money he got would never be able to bring him the means to start a decent business. Thus, he started investing his money in order to build it up, starting from day trading, he went for trades that provided supply to demand, rather than silver bullet deals, and slowly built back his fortune. When he amassed enough money, he began expanding on that ideal and became an investor and soon became the "Lifeline of Kamurocho". Despite that, he is still indebted to Arai as his benefactor, and hopes that Arai would one day become the head of the Tojo clan and bring it peace, so he often provides loans for Arai's personal investments.
Yakuza 4
" Just the other day, a Yakuza I have been backing up kills a man, then disappears. It got me thinking if I should bother anymore"
During one collection run at the behest of Hana, Akiyama runs into Kido, Arai's underling and loyal ally. When Ihara, a member of the Ueno Seiwa clan causes trouble at Elnard, he quickly provokes a fight with Akiyama and loses as Akiyama buys enough time for Arai to confront. In desperation, he pulls out a gun at them, wounding Arai. Returning to his office, he finds Arai had murdered Ihara and Akiyama was taken in for questioning and later cleared of his involvement in the attack. However, Sky Finance was put under surveillance by the police for that period which grates on Akiyama's nerves on why he made that decision.
During this time, he meets Lily, a woman who resembles his old flame Eri. Her request was a 100 million yen loan, as a test she has to earn 3 million yen at Elise, a net loss for Akiyama as he know he is unlikely to recover the loan. During this time, he sees many clients of his being murdered one by one. All who them had connections to the Shibata Family and suspect it was the work of a woman. Around that time, Sky Finance was also attacked and he rescues Kido from the Hatsushiba Clan. During the second day of Lily's test, they were attacked by Shibata's thugs as Akiyama fends them off. Lily earns the required amount and Akiyama explains his intentions on why he loans the money to people as
he sees how money can buy happiness and dreams. Wanting to see Lily's dream fulfilled he gives her the money for the test's completion but not before asking if she was responsible for the deaths of several Shibata's men which Lily denies. Returning to his office, he checks up on Hana who was furious at how he gave at 100 million yen to someone who resembled his ex-fiancee and chases her as she announces her resignation once he catches up with her.
After a fight with one of Majima's goons harassing his hostess club to find out about where Lily was, he learns the truth behind Lily, whose real name is Yasuko Saejima.
Sometime after the incident between Majima and Akiyama, he receives the money back from Tanimura who had taken the 100 million yen loan from Lily as she was going to Okinawa to find her brother before his execution (however this rendered moot as Saejima had escaped) and tells him that the last surviving Shibata family member was located at the docks to escape from the assassins who have been silencing Shibata members. Sometime after Tanimura finds out about the truth, they meet again at Homeland when Munakata and Katsuragi make their decisive plays against them, Sky Finance is held under direct investigation as he was thrown out of his office under suspicion of coercing people to take his loans.
With few options, they contact Yasuko to meet up with them to get to Purgatory where she can meet up with Saejima. However they get intercepted by Kiryu and gets beaten up by him and only to realize not even Purgatory is safe from Katsuragi as both were kidnapped.
Akiyama vs Arai
After the events of the Ueno Seiwa was handled, Akiyama knew the reason why the mess started was over the money as all of their rivals had a stake in it. Using the massive fortune he accumulated over the years as bait, he uses the opportunity to defeat Arai. With Date's help, a news article that exposes Munakata's corruption was revealed to the people who was too busy collecting the money. In one final act of vengeance, Munakata shoots Akiyama only for his last bit of money to protect him. Arai goes to prison for his involvement in the murders as Akiyama reunites with Hana who have lost a great deal of weight.
Yakuza Dead Souls
Akiyama was strolling around Kamurocho when Hana (who suffered from fever) rushed to him and told him that it's collection day and brought him his cell phone. On their way to Hotel District, Akiyama happened to met Sotaro Komaki who gives him a small memo. While continuing their trip, Akiyama noticed a gunfight coming from a building. Upon closer look, he found a person falling out of a window. Much to the citizens' fear, said person turns out to be mutated into a zombie and Akiyama decided to take things into his own hands by taking a gun that's previously used by said zombified person and telling Hana to run away.
Feeling confused, he tries to escape the zombie by heading towards the underground mall, where he found out that the escalators are closed. Shortly after, Hana followed him to the underground mall, only to be told to return to the office.
The following day, Akiyama woke up only to found out that Hana's fever is getting worse and that zombies are starting to storm the office, much to Hana's fear. Due to the outbreak, Akiyama decided to cancel any collection for the day and took Hana to New Serena while he head to the clinic to get a doctor to treat Hana, only to found out that the way is blocked. A low-level yakuza named Nagahama meets Akiyama by chance, and offered him to help by telling an alternative route at the cost of the gun Akiyama carries at that moment. Akiyama initially refused, but Nagahama told him that he can get another piece at a DVD store in Theater Avenue just under the theater. Upon reaching the theater's basement, a female named Reiko Hasegawa approached Akiyama, and she told him that she needs zombie samples for her research.
At the DVD store, Nagahama brought a few people, where one of them who happened to be a former employee told him that there are guns stashed at the store, much to his surprise. He told Akiyama an exit route and decided to tag along. Upon clearing the zombies, both men found a hatch which took them to an underground complex, which leads to a safe zone.
In the next chapter, Akiyama met Kamiyama (who now runs a pawn shop and a gun shop) and Hasegawa in the safe zone. Hasegawa introduced him to Akaishi, a member of the Crimson Shield group who serves as Hasegawa's right-hand. He makes his way through Kamurocho's underground complex to Theater Square to learn a route that the Crimson Shield use to enter and exit the safe zone. Eventually, Akiyama made it into the clinic, but the doctor wasn't present at that time and that a female's watching over the clinic. Akiyama managed to get a fever medicine after persuading the female to open the medicine cases. Outside the clinic, he met someone named Gary who takes him to his "boot camp", a marksmanship training facility located at a basement. Upon delivering the medicine to New Serena, he was shocked by the bar's now derelict condition and immediately search for Hana. Shortly after killing a couple of zombies at the bar, the bar's phone rang and Akiyama answered it, revealing that Hana escaped the bar and now hiding in Oriental Building in Nakamichi Street. Having reached the building, Akiyama encountered a large mob of zombies that caused trouble even for the Self-Defense Force as the zombies had surrounded their tank. Shortly after seeing the situation, Nagahama told Akiyama to head under the theater and find an exit route to the safe zone. Inside the safe zone, Nagahama told Akiyama about an alternate route to the Oriental Building.
Having reached the Oriental Building, Akiyama arrived just in time to save Hana and give the medicine to her. However, not so long after, a zombie appeared and knocked one of Akiyama's guns off his hands. Initially, Hana felt worried about him, but Nagahama's men arrived just in time to join Akiyama. After defeating the zombie, Akiyama, Hana and Nagahama's men investigated the zombie only to find out that it's a purposely made zombie.
Binary Domain
Akiyama appears as a bonus player in Binary Domain Online game
Yakuza 5
After exposing corruption of Touto Bank and Kamurocho Police Department of 26 years of money laundering to public with Kiryu, Tanimura, Saejima and Date, Akiyama quietly returned to his non-profit business of managing Sky Finance company.
Two years have passed and during this time, he decided to expand his business into Sotenbori to cater for the increased clients from all over Japan. However, the genius of finance and business lacked what is called "organizational skill", because he always lets his assistant Hana do that work. Therefore, he was struggling to open the office to public for almost 1 year since he bought the office.
While he was taking usual afternoon nap in his messy Sotenbori office, his cell phone which he forgot to turn-off goes off. The call was from Horie, an assistant of Mirei Park, the president of Dyna Chair Talent Agency, the client that he loaned 300 million yen a year back. Horie informed Akiyama that his boss, Park, committed suicide and the 300 million yen which was in the safe was also stolen.
Akiyama rushed to Dyna Chair office immediately and to his surprise he re-unites with Haruka, now an aspiring pop idol that happens to be a member of Dyna Chair talent agency. Haruka believed that her boss Mirei Park was murdered instead of committing suicide, and requests Akiyama to join him on his investigation.
As regretfully, he agrees that Haruka can join him on his investigation. In addition, after catching up with Haruka he realized it was his duty to fulfill Haruka and Park's dream of being on center stage of Tokyo Dome Concert, because he knew that was the reason Park applied for the 300 million yen loan. It was not all about money, it was about fulfilling everyone's dream.
During his meeting with Haruka at her apartment, he was attacked by Ogita, Haruka's former dance instructor, and a mysterious man named Kamon Kanai. He managed to fend off both of them, forcing them to retreat. The next day, Akiyama sees Park's suicide letter and notices that it has been forged. He went to search and visit the man who forged the suicide letter, and reveals that it was requested by Kanai himself, who turns out to be an underling of Naoki Katsuya of Osaka Talent.
He visits Katsuya at his building to discuss about Park's death in which he claims he had nothing to do with it, although Akiyama still doubts him. Finding no lead or evidences, Akiyama leaves the Osaka Talent building. An unknown person phoned him and telling him to return to his office to talk about Park's suicide. Upon arriving, the person turned out to be a police detective who revealed that it was Ogita who murdered Park and (most likely) pushed Horie off the building, and that an organization named Ousaka Enterprises, an Omi Alliance front directed by Kamon Kanai, orchestrated it. It was also revealed that Kanai used a forger to fabricate Park's suicide note as a mean of cover-up. Before leaving, the detective warned Akiyama not to stick his nose to this problem, although the revelation made Akiyama think the other way around. After leaving the office, a bunch of Omi Alliance members arrived at his office, much to Akiyama's delight as he's about to ask Hakamada, one of the members, about Ousaka Enterprises. However, Hakamada's less than happy to hear that, causing him to get into a fight with Akiyama.
After the fight, Hakamada told Akiyama that Kanai is currently at the Ousaka Enterprises office, which is an hour away from Sotenbori. Upon arriving in Ousaka Enterprises' office, Akiyama was faced by hostile Ousaka Enterprises employees before meeting Ogita, who was heavily injured and begged for Akiyama's help in exchange of him spilling the beans about the incident. He confessed to Akiyama that he was the one who murdered Park and that he (and Kanai) were employed by Ousaka Enterprises to break into the Dyna Chair office to steal a letter from Park's ex-husband in order to settle his debts, murdering her in the process, and letting Kanai cover up the murder as suicide in order to buy some time for the enterprise to track Park's ex-husband. He also told Akiyama that it was Kanai who injured Horie. Then, Akiyama decided to find Kanai despite Ogita's warning that Kanai's a considerably tough fighter. After finding Kanai, he told Akiyama that his underlings are currently on their way to kidnap Haruka, leading to a fight with Kanai's goons. Afterwards, Yamaura told Akiyama that Haruka was kidnapped by a bunch of yakuza.
Back at the Dyna Chair office, Akiyama checked on Yamaura about Haruka's whereabouts, which she didn't know, and told her and Christian that the assailants were from Ousaka Enterprises who thought that Haruka had the letter from Park's ex-husband. Not so long after, they were greeted by Katsuya, who brought Haruka back. He apologized to Akiyama for putting Haruka in harm's way, and continued by confessing that he's the president of Osaka Talents as well as chief of headquarters of Omi Alliance and chairman of Ousaka Enterprises, and admitted that Kanai was his underling. During the encounter, he revealed that Park's ex-husband was none other than Goro Majima, much to Akiyama's surprise.
After meeting Katsuya, Akiyama told Yamaura and Christian that Sotenbori is too dangerous for Haruka due to Omi Alliance's prominence, prompting him to leave Osaka and take Haruka to Kamurocho, figuring that by doing so the Omi Alliance will have to be careful due to Kamurocho being Tojo Clan's home turf, and to continue her journey to the Tokyo Dome concert.
The following day, Akiyama told Haruka that it was Majima who sent Park the letter, and that Katsuya wanted the letter to learn about Majima's whereabouts. However, Haruka refused to hand the letter over, which raises his suspicion that Haruka might be hiding something. Christian tipped Akiyama about Haruka mentioning Shin-Osaka Station, leading Akiyama to go there. Eventually, he managed to met Haruka at the station, however, he also encountered Kanai and his goons, which he managed to fend off before joining Haruka and taking her to Tokyo by taxi.
In the final chapter, Akiyama encountered Katsuya again in Tokyo, this time with an offer of 500 million yen to cancel the Japan Dome concert as well as Katsuya's guarantee that Osaka Talent will cover the cancellation expenses, which he declined. Back at Sky Finance, he met Tatsuo Shinada who requested a 320 million yen loan to cancel a concert in Japan Dome, much to his surprise.
Later on during the finale, Akiyama fought Kanai alongside his fellow Omi Alliance men. Upon defeating it, he gained a high degree of respect from the Omi Alliance, Yamagasa Family, and Kitakata Family to a point where all of the families bowed down before Akiyama.
Yakuza 6
It is revealed that during the three years that Kiryu spends in prison that Akiyama has shut down Sky Finance and seemingly disappeared after being targeted by the Chinese triads. Kiryu, searching for Haruka who has also seemingly gone missing, eventually finds Akiyama in hiding living in the sewers. Akiyama informs Kiryu that he doesn't know the whereabouts of Haruka and the two's conversation is cut short by the Chinese Mafia. Kiryu and Akiyama work together to take down mafia thugs and Akiyama is forced out of hiding.
When it is later revealed that Haruka has been left in a coma after being involved in a hit-and-run incident, Akiyama accompanies Kiryu to the hospital. It is also revealed that Haruka has a young son named Haruto. When child-services appear to take the child away, Kiryu decides to kidnap Haruto, stating that he doesn't want him to grow up in an institution just like he and Haruka had to. Akiyama disagrees with Kiryu and the two fight inside the children's ward. Kiryu eventually overpowers Akiyama and he reluctantly agrees to let Kiryu take Haruto.
He's later seen in the 7th chapter where Kiryu asked him to meet at a hotel in Theater Square. Disguised as a window cleaner, he met Kiryu, accompanied by Murota of Tojo Clan's Jinsei Family, his new acquaintance. There, Akiyama told Kiryu a few things: rumors that Sugai was affiliated to Saio Triad, that the arson's purpose was to give Saio Triad a place to move, staging a war between the Tojo Clan and Saio Triad to bring Daigo down. In return, Kiryu told him that he's looking for Tatsukawa and also his plan to go to Little Asia to talk with Ed, which he agreed under the condition that Kiryu should bring more men to go there. To meet the condition, Kiryu brought Yuta and Nagumo to infiltrate Little Asia.
During the infiltration, a butcher caught him and Kiryu, forcing both men to fight him. They managed to find Ed, however, they have to face the Triads after fighting Ed. After fighting the Triads, he's seen at New Serena, along with Kiryu, Yuta, and Nagumo, where he explained about heihaizi (a Chinese term referring to children born outside Chinese government's one-child policy) and that the Saio Triad had smuggled them to Japan for quite a while.
In the final chapter, Akiyama is seen paying a visit to the now-recovered Haruka at the police hospital. He told Kiryu that Haruka may have to move around to keep her safe from both Tojo Clan and Yomei Alliance, however, he can't help Kiryu to take care of Haruka and joined Kiryu and the rest of Hirose Family instead. Back at Serena, he ensured Kiryu that Haruka's safe in the hands of Date and that he's willing to take care of Yuta's injuries, only to found him escaped from his shack sometime later.
In the epilogue, Akiyama decided to re-open Sky Finance. It's also revealed that he knew Kiryu's true fate.
Ryu Ga Gotoku Online/ Yakuza Online
Akiyama is set to appear in Ryu Ga Gotoku Online.
Appearance
Shun Akiyama has seven outfits with his appearance throughout the series.
His default outfit consists in a pair of black chukka boots, black business pants with a black leather belt with golden buckle, black long-sleeved shirt and a maroon tweed jacket along with a gold wristwatch. He keeps a grown stubble and his hair slightly long and a golden necklace on his neck. In Yakuza 5, he wears a different wristwatch.
As a homeless he wears a grey hood, brown cap, blue shirt into the hood. His shoes are a pair of trainers and also his outfit appears to be dirty, marking his life as a homeless on the street.
During the end of Yakuza 4, he wears a black suit and a white shirt, donned in similar fashion to his default outfit.
He has extra outfits: the Disco Outfit (first appears on Yakuza 4 and so on), the Detective outfit (firstly appears on Yakuza: Dead Souls and so on), the White-tight with a helmet outfit (appears on 5 only), and Shinada outfit (also appears on 5 only).
In Yakuza 6, he wears four different kinds of outfits: his default maroon jacket over all-black shirt and pants, his homeless outfit, a disguise which consist of a blue work clothes over charcoal gray shirt and charcoal gray baseball cap and an all-black variant of his default outfit.
Personality
Akiyama is a carefree and kind character. Like Kiryu, Akiyama is always ready to help people in need. This makes it easier for him to gain friends in Kamurocho. Although he is a loan shark, he does not charge his clients with interest and collateral. Instead, he gives unique tests to his clients before he loans them money. He even sometimes helps them accomplish their tasks. He wishes to test them, based on his past experience as a banker-turned-homeless man, to see if they are willing to work hard and do whatever it takes to get the money they need. However, he will not hesitate to turn down his clients, no matter how miserable their situation is, if they failed his test, though he does sometimes give them second chances.
Akiyama also known for his laziness. He often sleeps on his couch while customers are not around, and leaves his office is in a total mess, usually just letting Hana do the cleaning. Akiyama is also somewhat forgetful. He regularly forgets when its a collection day and has to be reminded of it by Hana, much to her chagrin. In Yakuza 4, he forgets to lock his office door, which allowed Kido to enter his office and discover his safe containing his ¥100,000,000,000 behind his bookshelves, which results in the latter stealing the money. Despite this, he can still remember where every single book on the shelf is supposed to be.
Despite his vast funds, he does not have a house or an apartment, instead he lives in his rather modest office.
He is good friends with the homeless of Kamurocho due to being one for years and he occasionally buys food and drinks for them.
Being an owner of a hostess club, Akiyama is very knowledgeable on matters such as fashion and women. He is always giving advice to his hostesses on how to provide excellent services for the customers, as well as directions on their appearances in order to match what the customers wants. He has also helped several men win hearts of women by giving them useful insights and fashion advice to make them more attractive to women.
Akiyama also cares deeply for Hana. Since Hana has followed him since his days as a banker, they share a close friendship. When Hana finds herself in danger, Akiyama doesn't hesitate to help her, and vice versa. He was also quite worried when he found her wounded in Yakuza 4, and was visibly sad when Hana decided to quit from Sky Finance. He was grateful when Hana returned.
During the events of Yakuza 6, he became a very cautious person, apparent when Kiryu experienced some difficulties in trying to get in touch with him.
He also feels grateful to Kiryu for changing his life after the the events of Yakuza. He became Kiryu's trustworthy ally and friend in 4, 5, and 6, helping him whenever he can. In Yakuza 5, he helps Haruka Sawamura to realizes her dream as a sign of gratitude to Kiryu, and in return, Kiryu helps him against the Saio Triad in Yakuza 6.
Fighting Style
Throughout his appearances, Akiyama consistently fights using a kick-based style. The style greatly resembles the Korean martial at Taekwondo but according to Akiyama himself, his style isn't based on any particular martial art.
Yakuza 4
Akiyama's fighting style consists mainly on kick attacks, allowing him to unleash multiples hits at once. He relies on high speed and quick dodges to get ahead of his opponents and avoid being swarmed. While his grabbing game is still rather poor, his multiple-hit combo gives him an edge to finish enemies quickly. He has the ability to dodge while performing his standard combo, a feature that prevents him to be attacked while hitting another opponent. Akiyama doesn't have much interaction with his Heat actions, but his fast swift combos make up for it. Akiyama could possibly make infinite combos after completing a training regime.
Yakuza 5
Akiyama still retains his moves Yakuza 4 and gains some newer moves. He has a backflip that sends enemies up into the air that could follow up with a heat action, or follow up with an aerial combo. He gains some new heat actions as well.
Loan Tests
Throughout the events of Yakuza 4 and 5, Akiyama offers loans to certain people to test their commitment to find. Tasks range from community service to working for him to pay back a portion of the money if there are no tasks.
- Lily (Yasuko Saejima) - Lily came to Sky Finance to borrow 100 million yen so that she can release her brother from prison. Her test was to gain 3 million yen by working at Elise in 3 days. Lily passed the test and get the 100 million, but not before Akiyama asks about her murder of Kanemura and the manager of Drama Queen. Lily did not tell Akiyama about who she really is and promised to repay the 100 million to Akiyama someday. This test also resulted in Hana quitting Sky Finance out of frustration with Akiyama's behavior.
- Shiobara - The first client the player meets in Akiyama's substory, Shiobara was an aimless entrepreneur who struggled to establish his own successful business. In his initial test, he unsuccessfully tried to complete three separate tasks which Akiyama knew he would fail. Tackling Shiobara's refusal to lay off people and taking the blame for the company's failure, Akiyama makes him work for Paradise Advertising, which was in need of layoffs. While he passed the first test, he again approaches Akiyama for another loan after he loses his passion and his second test was to take a single mundane item and make money out it. Here he teaches his secret to success was not by seeking the golden opportunity but to satisfy the needs of others.
- Unnamed Woman - A middle-aged woman who asks Akiyama for a loan to sustain her family expenses. She is given three hours to find a job. She fails to commit fully and seeks out the obvious jobs and refused to make the sacrifices needed to secure a loan and fails to get a loan.
- Shoko Muto - A single woman who was in need of money to pay off her outstanding debts for her extravagant lifestyle. Akiyama hands her a million yen as a "gift" and secretly surveillance her spending habits with the money she has acquired. Unwilling to spend extravagantly with Akiyama's money, she passes the test as she was willing let go of her reckless spending habits.
- Setsuko Arima - The wife of President Arima, a loan agency owner similar to Akiyama, using Shiobara to lure away clients from Akiyama. Akiyama gets a request for a loan from his wife and puts her through the same process as the unnamed woman. She is so desperate for the loan that she goes to Elise to seek any kind of work. After learning about Arima's situation, Akiyama reasons with the husband who decides to start anew from his corporate raiding past.
- Hanaoka - A client of Akiyama during the events of Dead Souls. Saddled with debt due to having to care for so many cats. He succeeds by giving the cats away to other people who wanted a pet cat of their own.
- Mirei Park - Akiyama's client during the events of Yakuza 5. In order to secure a 300 million yen loan to fund Haruka's upcoming concert at the Japan Dome, Park was assigned to "make money using her body", so she took two jobs: as a hostess (where she managed to be the number one hostess) and as a construction worker.
- Juri - A hostess working at Elise, while officially she was trying to earn money to sustain her finances, the loan in question was to help her boyfriend's gambling debts.
- Kazami - An estranged father, he sought out a loan so his daughter can go to university. He succeeded on the condition that he personally gave the tuition money to his daughter.
- Tsukimura - A man literally down on his luck, he comes to Akiyama for a loan. He is given the loan on the condition that he turns the money given into a profit, only to be saddled with a worse losing streak. His lucky streak saved him from failing to meet the conditions of the loan when he bet on a low odds horse and won.
- Yamori - Akiyama's former employer. After Akiyama was fired, Eri married Yamori and both had a happy life until the scandal got Munakata involved and destroyed Yamori's reputation at Toto Bank enough to get him to resign from his post as he fails to establish a new business and got blacklisted. At first he intended to let a couple of loan sharks murder him so he can give his insurance to his family but Akiyama intervened in time. While Akiyama intended to have his revenge by making Yamori divorce Eri, he decides that, in order to give Yamori a start up loan, he would have to put behind his previous grudges with Akiyama.
- Nanako Kodama - A pin-up idol who aspires to go independent. Akiyama gave her four tests: becoming a temporary hostess for one day, collect a loan, "make money using her body" (which she translated to construction work), and finally, change her stage name. She refused to do the last test, so Akiyama refused to give her the loan.
Gallery
Trivia
- Akiyama appears at the beginning of the install screen on two games, in Yakuza 4 and Yakuza: Dead Souls.
- This signifies that he is the first playable character on both games.
- In Yakuza 5, he appears as the fourth protagonist after Haruka. Both characters are representing the Osaka Story in Yakuza 5 and also share the same part on the story mode.
- In Yakuza: Dead Souls, Akiyama is the only newcomer to be playable alongside characters that had appeared before Yakuza 4.
- In Yakuza 5, Akiyama is the only male protagonist who doesn't fight Baba.
- Aside from Kiryu, Akiyama is tied with Majima on the most appearances as a playable character in the Yakuza series, being playable in Yakuza 4, 5 and Dead Souls, while Majima is playable in Yakuza 0, Kiwami 2, and Dead Souls.
- In Yakuza 4, protagonists representing the 4 Eastern Gods. Shun Akiyama is the Vermilion Bird, as he has the most elegance (speed and flow) out of the character and is the most idealistic. He also has a red coat, the color of the Vermilion Bird.
- Due to his smoking habits, he appears to be suffering from a shortness of breath.
- Akiyama's watch in Yakuza 5 is a real life item designed by Japanese apparel company GaGa Milano.