The camera loves Show Kasamatsu. As Akiro Sato, the enforcer turned leader of the Chihara-Kai gang, Kasamatsu is the gravitational pull at the center of Tokyo Vice, connecting the yakuza underworld with the journalists covering them, the cops chasing them, and the nightclubs benefiting from their patronage. A dashing figure with tattoos peeking out beneath his well-cut suit and a cigarette perched between his lips, Kasamatsu gives Sato the kind of coiled, poised presence that attracts everyone from Ansel Elgort’s reporter, Jake, to Rachel Keller’s hostess, Sam. The show often lingers on his face to capture the ways organized crime’s ruthlessness weighs on Sato: his raw grief while weeping over the body of his murdered mentor Ishida, or the shocked panic of bleeding out from an attack by one of his yakuza colleagues in season one’s cliffhanger.
That cliffhanger confirmed Kasamatsu’s status as Tokyo Vice’s breakout star — “ever since the finale of season one, the question I’m asked, daily, constantly, on multiple continents, is, ‘Is Sato alive!?’†series creator J. T. Rogers told Vulture before season two premiered — and as production began preparing for the new season, Rogers and Kasamatsu met for five hours to discuss Sato’s ascendancy, as he is handpicked by the Chihara-Kai oyabun to head the gang. The arc broadly mirrored the sense of responsibility Kasamatsu had while taking Sato to the top. “The audience really loves him,†the actor says through Eriko Yamaguchi, his translator on set. “I didn’t want to disappoint anybody — the audience and also the people who created this story.â€
You smoke a lot on the show and look so stylish doing it. I’m wondering if you intentionally worked on how your smoking looks.
I get that a lot, that it looks cool, but I never even thought of that. And I’m not trying to be cool, of course. When I smoke onscreen or in my personal life, I face the other person with my cigarette. I want to be a gentleman when I smoke. And every role that I have in which I smoke, depending on the time period it’s in, I follow the practices of the time. Tokyo Vice was portraying the late ’90s, and back then, everybody smoked and threw their cigarette butts on the ground. It’s not a good thing to do, but for the show, I’m following the rules of what used to be. But I want to show the character enjoying the cigarette, and maybe that’s why people think it’s cool.
Sato carries a lot of responsibility in the finale. Katagiri gives him the information he needs to bring down Tozawa, and Sato has a big speech to the yakuza oyabun where he explains why Tozawa should die. What was filming that scene like?
Before that, Sato has to gather all the yakuza big bosses in one room, and that was really, really challenging for me. I played those scenes like I was creating a huge movie, and I needed to talk to Ken Watanabe and Ansel Elgort to get them to join, and I also needed to talk to J. T. and Alan Poul and Michael Mann. Should I use a big voice, really convincingly? Or do I have to be really polite when I ask them to do this together?
When Sato walks out of the restaurant after Tazawa dies, he flashes a peace sign at Katagiri, Jake, and Sam before he gets into his car. Was the peace sign written, or did you improvise that?
That moment was challenging. I feel similar to Sato in worrying so much about something, but after accomplishing it, not wanting to show it. That’s a big thing Sato accomplishes, that Tozawa committed suicide, but Sato doesn’t want to show that. The director, Josef Kubota Wladyka, suggested that maybe Sato could give a wink. But as he was about to roll the scene, I was thinking, maybe not a wink? It’s kind of a Western way to express something, and I thought it was not as cool as “peace.†I did the peace sign, and Josef really liked it, and that was in the final cut. But after filming the scene and in the editing room, the series’ Japanese producers came up to me and asked, “What was the point of showing the peace sign after Tozawa gets killed?†There was a talk between the Japanese producers and the U.S. producers as to whether they’re going to cut the peace sign. I asked the producers, “What’s wrong with it?†and they said, “Isn’t it too much, too casual to do, after killing Tozawa?†If you did something special and you came out bragging, “Well, I did so much,†that’s not cool. I believed Sato would be the kind of person to just pretend that nothing happened, that it was an easy, piece-of-cake kind of thing. That’s what the peace sign meant. The Japanese producers said, “Okay, we understand, but we don’t really understand.†But that scene stayed in the final cut.
There’s also the Chihara-Kai parent-child ceremony, where Sato is dressed by his brothers, drinks from the same sake cup as the oyabun, and pledges his loyalty. How complicated was that, with the rituals and such a large group of actors?
In the very first episode, in season one, we had that ceremony for Kume, so I knew where it was going and what it was gonna be like. We rehearsed so many times. Maybe the episode has one minute or 30 seconds of it in the final cut, but we actually went through a whole ceremony — about 30 minutes — and everybody was sitting there with their legs folded down on the floor. When they called “cut,†everybody was throwing their legs out and stretching and exclaiming, “Oh gosh, that really hurt!†No one wanted to screw up the scene by moving.
This season we see more of Sato’s relationship with Chihara-Kai leader Ishida; the two have a father-son-type bond after Sato saved Ishida’s life from an assassination attempt in season one. There’s the scene in episode five where Ishida puts his hand on top of Sato’s and tells him he wants him to lead the Chihara-Kai. How did you and Shun Sugata approach that?
The script says Ishida will die later on, but he wouldn’t know that yet. Sugata-san said out of the blue, “Don’t you think it’s weird, in a good way?†Maybe he had a hunch that something’s gonna happen to him. Holding hands, for a big yakuza guy, is usually not going to happen. I really like Sugata-san. He was dealing with an illness during filming, and every time he was sick, he would come back on set even more powerful. He is a really, really sweet guy. Once in 1,000 days, maybe he gets a little scary on set, but I like seeing that, because it’s human — sometimes you get pissed. We’re still in contact today, texting each other.
When Ishida dies, he whispers something into Sato’s ear, but the episode doesn’t tell us what he said. What did Sugata-san say to you?
It was like Japanese poetry, this whole scene. Sato talks about Hayama as a big brother, and to Ishida, Hayama is a child of the clan — you can’t really talk shit about him. But there was a mutual understanding and feeling between Ishida and Sato about Hayama. What he said while whispering into Sato’s ear wasn’t written in the script, but Ishida mumbled a lot of things as part of a dream for Chihara-Kai’s success. One thing he whispered to Sato was, “Kill Hayama. Then it’s going to be okay.â€
So it’s Ishida’s last order, to make sure Sato kills Hayama and takes over.
To have the Chihara-Kai last longer after he dies was Ishida’s last wish.
Sato’s eating so much this season: He gets noodles with his brother; he gets yakitori with Gen. How did you approach having to eat and act at the same time?
When I’m eating Kobe beef or something really chewy, it’s not easy to get out the lines and chew at the same time. Sometimes it’s cold beef and you have to really chew through it. I don’t like when actors just put a tiny bit in their mouth and chew it and say the line. I don’t want to do that. I eat noodles and ramen by the mouthful but also try to say the line clearly; I don’t pretend I’m eating. I really eat when Sato eats, even though there are lines, lines, lines. But if I can request for the future: Please give me something soft!
The series includes music from both major ’90s American boy bands, ’N Sync and the Backstreet Boys. In season one, Sato and Jake have a conversation about the Backstreet Boys song “I Want It That Way,†and Sato says, “’N Sync are imitators. Backstreet is original.†Do you personally have a preference between the two?
After playing Sato, I can’t really say I like ’N Sync anymore. When Tokyo Vice wrapped, I went to Australia to film The Narrow Road to the Deep North. I went out one night to a club, and “I Want It That Way†started playing. About ten people there, who I didn’t know, started looking at me like, “Is that your song?†[Laughs.] But there’s one song that I really like from the Backstreet Boys. [Hums melody.]
“As Long As You Love Meâ€!Â
Yes! When we had the Tokyo Vice wrap party, we went to karaoke, and “I Want It That Way†started. I was wondering, Who’s gonna sing this song?, and someone brought me two mics. So I sang the song with two mics.
This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity.Â