Umibōzu

Umibōzu (Japanese: 海坊主, "sea initiate priest", pronounced "oo-me-boh-zoo"), or Umibozu and sometimes described as the Foreign Interests Group (FIG), is a Japanese Armed Forces (JSDF) special operations unit of the clandestine specialty loosely designed after the American Navy SEALs and British SBS. The unit is little-known outside Japan but is infamous for suspected criminal relations and maintaining intelligence posts in foreign nations considered threats to Japanese national security.

Created following the end of Japanese pacifism in the 1990s, the organization became Japan's premier maritime offensive unit, often deploying beyond the country's borders in a secret capacity and serving as one of the country's few preemptive warfare assets. Their presence is most felt across the Pacific Rim, fighting in undeclared resource wars and intervening in corporate skirmishes.

Since the softening of international tensions in the face of the many Corporate wars and the collapse of a number of Pacific Rim nations, the operations of the Umibōzu have shifted towards continued surveillance of foreign threats and a begrudging clean up effort leftover by unchecked megacorporations, particularly Arasaka. Arasaka's refusal in dealing with fleets of runaway autonomous submarine drones deployed during the Fourth Corporate War and the Red Decade have been the primary issue of the Umibōzu, left to seek out and neutralize the indiscriminate drone fleet attacks on global shipping routes.

FIG Observation Unit-12 has taken particular interest in recent Arasaka activities in the freeport of Night City in 2077, however, has had little ability to act or investigate deeper into the explosive issues surrounding Arasaka's Engram rollout.

Equipment
Due in part to their nature as an undercover military force, the Umibōzu do everything within their ability to avoid standing out without compromising lethality and efficiency. Their gear and equipment choices reflect the lands and combat theaters they are deployed to, however, there are distinct item choices that every Umibōzu cell is known to employ.



Arasaka-designed/implemented weapons and weapons favored by the Japanese Armed Forces are the preferred tools of the trade for the Umibōzu, though predominantly those oriented towards urban, close-quarters warfare or specialized, long-range engagements for assassination jobs and the often rarer occasion of counter-engagement or operations in a mountain warfare theater. The proliferation of Japanese-originating weapons, particularly from Arasaka worldwide has made blending in and their use easy for the Umibōzu. Upgraded and heavily-modified Araska weapons such as Minami-10 submachine guns, WAA bullpup carbines, and WSA machine pistols were considered standard complement in the early decades of the twenty-first century. One of particular standout was the unit's almost synonymous use of the Arasaka Tamayura for the better part of a century along with its iconic three-dotted slide. Such iconography has faded into history however.

By the contemporary 2070s, Umibōzu suffered the same systematic issues in logistics and strategic operations that suffered throughout the Self-Defense Forces ranks since the turn of the century. In fact, the Umibōzu were among the first units affected by mass retirements as Arasaka headhunted their ranks along with other prestigious units for the best of the best to take on lucrative corporate security contracts. By Arasaka maintaining a standing military force comparable to the national forces along with an almost monopolization on servicing Japan's military needs, the Japanese military was left playing second fiddle. Umibōzu continues to employ Arasaka arms as their primary trade tools but to an extent, the unit developed a preference for older Arasaka weaponry due to the high skill cost required to maintain contemporary gear. When the Umibōzu serve as a deniable operations unit on foreign soil and in geopolitics, there are times they must bite the hand that feeds them and pick a fight with Arasaka itself. Having an arsenal entirely dependent on a unreliable friend is not a sound military strategy after all.

As of current, the Umibōzu has consolidated its arsenal to the older Arasaka Nowaki as their service rifle in lieu of the more modern and dizzingly-complex Masamune. The unit turned to Tsunami Defense Systems for their Nue-series handgun. Outside the standard service equipment, the Umibōzu use the American Midnight Arms SOR-22 as a reliable precision weapon on foreign shores. Any matter of submachine guns, shotguns, and tech weapons are more matter of circumstance or preferences upon heading to foreign deployments. Otherwise using more complicated tech weaponry returns to the dependency issue often tied to Arasaka's looming shadow.

A recently popular trend however appears to be emerging among the Umibōzu in a preference for the Arasaka Shigure submachine gun, however, it is yet to be considered something of standard complement or even issue.

Notable Members

 * Ena Nakano (Dishonorably Discharged)

Trivia

 * The Umibōzu is inspired loosely by a pair of subjects, one fictional and one pertaining to nonfiction. The first is the fictional commando unit known by the same name featured in the finale of Ghost in the Shell: Standalone Complex's first season, the Laughing Man case. The second inspiration is the real-life Japanese special operations unit, the Special Boarding Unit that was established March 27, 2001, by the Japanese Maritime Self-Defense Force after repeated territorial incursions by suspected North Korean spy ships near the Noto Peninsula during the 1990s.