Takakura

Takakura
Name
English	Takakura
Bio
Gender	Male
Hair Color	White
Eye Color	Gray
Current Affiliations
Nationality	Japan
Team	Cabinet of Japan
Occupation	Chief Cabinet Secretary
Appearances
Anime	Stand Alone Complex 2nd GIG
Actors
Japanese VA	Yoshinori Muto
English VA	Eddie Jones, William Basset

Takakura (高倉) is the Chief Cabinet Secretary of the Kayabuki administration in Stand Alone Complex 2nd GIG who was likely the power broker of Prime Minister Yoko Kayabuki's Cabinet and received the post to appease the hardliner elements within the ruling party who distrusted Kayabuki. He is described by Chief Daisuke Aramaki as a "pro-American neo-conservative". While he and Kazundo Gouda have similar interests, and Gouda's Cabinet Intelligence Service answers directly to Takakura, their ultimate goals seemed to differ and both insisted they were acting as stand-alones during the events of the Refugee Crisis.

Ghost in the Shell: 2nd GIG

During the early episodes of 2nd Gig, Secretary Takakura acts as a go-between for Section 9 and Prime Minister Kayabuki; especially during the attempted assassination by Hideo Kuze. After a series of suicide bombings by the refugees, Japan is approached by Imperial America which is suffering from an economic downturn with a treaty re-affirming Article 9 of the Japanese Constitution. Article 9 prohibits the Self-Defense Forces from acting overseas in an offensive capacity. The goal of the treaty, from the American standpoint, would be to ultimately co-opt the so-called 'Japanese Miracle': a type of micro-machine that scrubs radioactive fallout and therefore lessens the threat of a nuclear attack. While Kayabuki puts the treaty in the background in order to deal with the growing refugee crisis in Dejima, Takakura whole-heartedly supports it as a way of securing Japan's future as a world power.

With Kayabuki's Cabinet divided on the refugee issue and Kayabuki herself able to do very little as she has virtually no political clout of her own, Takakura, who is described by Chief Aramaki as part of a Neo-Conservative faction, begins to take steps to move authorization on the matter from Public Security and the National Police Agency to the Military. Thanks largely to data manipulation from Kazundo Gouda, the Military is given a greater role in the crisis beginning with the Coast Guard being sent in to blockade Dejima (ironically at the request of Section 9) and later when the Self-Defense Army was sent into Nagaski to secure the city which is under the threat of a nuclear bomb. Through it all Takakura's hand increases and as public dissatisfaction grows over the handling of the Dejima Crisis, Takakura convinces the Cabinet to authorize a military invasion of Dejima under the pretense of securing plutonium believed to be bought by Hideo Kuze. Kayabuki, under the advise of Aramaki, stalls the invasion by going to the UN and Takakura arranges for them both to be placed under house arrest: leaving him in control of the government during most of the remaining episodes.

After the Tachikomas sacrificed themselves to stop the American Empire's nuclear attack on Dejima, Kayabuki seizes power back and places Takakura under arrest. While it isn't known what happened to him, it is likely that his actual role in the Crisis was never brought to the public's attention and he is still alive and under house arrest.

Etymology

• The surname Takakura means "tall, high" (高) (taka) and "warehouse, storehouse, barn, treasury, granary, cellar, magazine, godown, depository, elevator, storage place, repository, supply shed, grain elevator, stockpile, arsenal" (倉) (kura).

Notes

• Takakura has two English voice actors where they role was voiced by:
  • Eddie Jones in Those Who Have the Motive, The Rhapsodic Melody of a Bygone Nation, and The Fact of Being There.
  • William Basset in The Day the Bridge Falls and Return to Patriotism.