‘Tokyo Vice’: Here’s What Illness Tozawa Has
‘Tokyo Vice’ Season 2 is going forward full steam ahead with already three episodes aired. One of the most notable absences in the first 2 episodes was Shinzo Tozawa the leader of the clan rival to Chihara-kai, who is trying to establish himself as the big fish on the Tokyo Yakuza scene. Now we know that Tozawa has some kind of health condition from which he was suffering greatly, and following episode three we’ve learned that he was not dead, but has been undergoing treatment. We’re intrigued by the mystery of his condition once again, let’s see what kind of illness Tozawa has.
Tozawa’s symptoms correspond to various issues with liver
Over the course of season 1 of ‘Tokyo Vice’ we’ve seen Tozawa struggling with some kind of mysterious condition that left him too weak to stand up straight in some instances, covered in sores in other instances, and basically dependent on various medications so he could function normally. It was clear that he was suffering from some kind of chronic and difficult condition but this was never actually revealed in season 1 and for a good reason. The showrunners decided to postpone the reveal because it’s a good part of his character and the mystery of how he treated his disease will be one of the important plots in the upcoming episodes.
Based on what we know about the symptoms, it could be anything but if we are more specific and use the WebMd we can see that his symptoms correspond to liver disease of unspecified kind. The symptoms include feeling generally unwell and fatigued, loss of appetite and weight, muscle wasting, nausea, vomiting, tenderness or pain in the liver area, spider-like small blood capillaries on the skin above waist level (spider angiomas), blotchy red palms, and disturbed sleep patterns. The majority of these symptoms Tozawa manifested at some point in the series.
Now the second thing that leads us to believe that he has a liver failure is his real-life inspiration, Tadamasa Goto.
Tozawa’s inspiration, Tadamasa Goto also suffered from liver disease
Although unofficially, Tozawa is based on Tadamasa Goto. He was the original leader of the Goto-gumi, a branch of the Yamaguchi-gumi, Japan’s largest yakuza organization, located in Fujinomiya. In 2001, Goto negotiated with the FBI to enter the United States for a liver transplant, making a $100,000 donation to UCLA Medical Center. He received a liver transplant through a controversial expedited process while many locals died waiting. UCLA also provided transplants to three other Japanese gang members. Goto continued receiving care from Dr. Ronald Busuttil in Japan, with Busuttil visiting him even during his custody in 2006. Despite FBI interest in other Yakuza clan activities, Goto provided little information about the matters despite his life being saved.
Tadamasa Goto is currently still alive and he has long since retired from criminal life, he is currently serving as a Buddhist priest if you can believe it, so the treatment that Tadamasa got was fairly successful. The reason why Tadamas didn’t get a new organ in Japan is that, in the past, Japanese culture did not look favorably upon organ transplants.
Will Tozawa die?
It’s unlikely that Tozawa will die, we haven’t seen much of him in season 3, but we can se assume that he has gone through the transplant and that we will see more of him now that he is feeling better. One of the directors Alan Poul explained that all will be revealed at the right moment.
It [the illness] was not revealed in season one because that is part of the mystery I was alluding to before. So, it is gradually revealed and will ultimately be made very clear what is wrong with him and what he did to take care of it.
Deadline
Have something to add? Let us know in the comments below!