 The captain of the Shohoku judo team, is a childhood friend of the Akagi siblings, having argued with Takenori over which sport was better, judo or basketball, since their youth.This resentment continued until their present age, where their feud is over which team will be National Champion first.He tries to get Hanamichi Sakuragi join the judo team because he considers his fighting skills exceptional, and to achieve this, "bribed" him with some photos of Haruko when she was younger.