Yotsuba Group

The Yotsuba Group is a group of eight characters present in the anime and manga versions of Death Note; the characters are executive members of the Yotsuba Corporation. On Light's instruction, Rem delivers the Death Note to one of them. They meet weekly to discuss the killing of key individuals from competing companies to maintain dominance in the business industry. The members grow suspicious of one of them being Kira, who is later revealed to be Kyosuke Higuchi.

Executives of Yotsuba
The group that conducts the "Meetings of Death" consists of:

Kyosuke Higuchi
Kyosuke Higuchi (火口 卿介 Higuchi Kyōsuke) Voiced by: Issei Futamata (Japanese), Andrew Kavadas (English)
 * Death Note 13: How to Read describes Higuchi, the head of Technology Development, as a "greedy," "forceful," and "selfish" individual who uses the Death Note to attain a higher status that was out of his reach.

Shingo Mido
Shingo Mido (三堂 芯吾 Midō Shingo) Voiced by: Eiji Hanawa (Japanese), Trevor Devall (English)
 * Mido, the Vice President of Corporate Strategy and the Director of Financial Planning, feels reservations regarding the Yotsuba Kira and ponders leaving the other board members. Mido "seems" to have a "sense of appreciation" for Yotsuba.

Reiji Namikawa
Reiji Namikawa (奈南川 零司 Namikawa Reiji) Voiced by: Hirofumi Nojima (Japanese), Ted Cole (English)
 * Namikawa is the Vice President of Sales. He initially encourages the Yotsuba Kira. After receiving a telephone call from Light he ceases participation and observes the scenario. How to Read describes him as the "most talented" of the board members who has the potential to "make it to the top" without Kira. He has a talent in shogi at the professional 4-dan level. How to Read 13 states that he detests useless subordinates.

Eiichi Takahashi
Eiichi Takahashi (鷹橋 鋭一 Takahashi Eiichi) Voiced by: Rintarō Nishi (Japanese), David Orth (English)
 * Takahashi is the Vice President of Yotsuba Material Planning Division and Yotsuba Homes. How to Read 13 states that he "never had what it takes to be a true leader" and that he was selected to attend the meetings to "make Higuchi look good." The book adds that other members view Takahashi as "foolish" because he does not "seem to put much thought into his comments."

Suguru Shimura
Suguru Shimura (紙村 英 Shimura Suguru) Voiced by: Hiroyuki Yokoo (Japanese), Brian Drummond (English)
 * Shimura is the Head of Personnel. How to Read 13 describes him as "paranoid" and one who always "keeps a close eye" on others. Shimura's ability to pay attention to small details allowed him to join the meetings; he noticed subtle changes in "poker-faced" Namikawa's face. How to Read states that he does not like his predicament.

Masahiko Kida
Masahiko Kida (樹多 正彦 Kida Masahiko) Voiced by: Masaki Aizawa (Japanese), Martin Sims (English)
 * The Vice President of Rights and Planning, Kida controls the finances of the committee and contacts "Eraldo Coil." How to Read 13 describes him as "calm and collected." However, he is not able to "deal with surprises," leading him to panic when "Eraldo Coil," Yotsuba's hired private investigator and an alias of L's, asks for more money.

Takeshi Ooi
Takeshi Ooi (尾々井 剛 Ooi Takeshi) Voiced by: Kiyoyuki Yanada (Japanese), Michael Kopsa (English)
 * Ooi is the Vice President of VT Enterprises. He is the eldest and "most influential" member and he "appears" to control the conferences. He individually contacts the members of the committee. How to Read 13 states that Ooi is "seemingly" a "tough guy who doesn't sweat the details."

Arayoshi Hatori
Arayoshi Hatori (葉鳥 新義 Hatori Arayoshi) Voiced by: Yukitoshi Tokumoto (Japanese), Simon Hayama (English)
 * The Vice President of Marketing, Hatori is the illegitimate son of the company president and uses this fact to benefit himself. How to Read 13 states that he "appears to be something of a lightweight" and that he cannot handle the pressures of the meetings. After Hatori makes a "careless outburst" the Yotsuba Kira kills him.

Kira
Kyosuke Higuchi, the third "Kira," takes the Death Note given to him by Rem. During L's probe on the group, Higuchi kills Hatori after Hatori produced a "careless outburst." Rem aids in the capture of Higuchi by revealing his identity to Misa Amane. Misa uses her status as the second Kira to get him to admit to being Kira on tape. Higuchi is captured in an elaborate setup concocted by Light and L, and once Light touches the Death Note, thereby regaining his memories of being the real Kira, he uses a Death Note scrap to kill Higuchi. After L's death, Light writes the names of the remaining six members of the Yotsuba Group, killing them by way of heart attacks. Rumors of Kira's responsibility in the deaths causes Yotsuba's stock prices to drop sharply. In the director's cut of Death Note, Mido dies by falling from a tall building, Shimura dies by being run over by a train, and Namikawa dies in a car accident.

Tom S. Pepirium, an editor of IGN website, describes Higuchi in a review of the Death Note episode "Performance" as having "more in common with Cobra Commander than anyone from Death Note, announcing his nefarious plans to no one in particular. Even throwing in a few evil chuckles for good measure."

Conception and development of the Yotsuba Group
Ohba created the characters as "stock villains intended to make the main characters look good." Ohba said that he had always planned for Light to regain his status as Kira, so the specifics of a certain member of the Yotsuba group being Kira would not matter to the plot; Ohba wanted the readers to guess which of the characters was Kira. After seeing Obata's designs, Ohba selected Higuchi as Kira. Ohba said that he wanted for Mido to appear to be "the most suspicious" of the Yotsuba group. Ohba added that he created the profiles of the characters while eating dinner with the editor. He believes that he did not "put much thought" into the character profiles. He said that he included a lot of information to serve as red herrings.



Obata said that he felt excited when he learned that he had to draw eight Kira characters. Obata said that he created the characters "in the mold of The Seven Samurai" by giving each Yotsuba board member his own individual appearance. Obata said that he remembers making Mido and Namikawa look attractive to make the readers believe that they may be Kira.

Ohba selected Higuchi to be Kira for several reasons. He used Mido as a "red herring" character and therefore he could not establish Mido as Kira. Takahashi, labeled "even more foolish than Higuchi" by other characters, is also a red herring. Once Namikawa received Light's telephone call he could not be Kira. Ohba said that Shimura "doesn't have the right personality." He explained that one would have to "be foolish" to use the Death Note and therefore the Yotsuba Kira would have to be "foolish" and "in Yotsuba's case, a very greedy person." Ohba stated that he used the process of elimination to select Higuchi to be Kira.

Yotsuba Group