He serves as Deputy Director of the National Police Agency and is Soichiro Yagami's direct superior.
Both Kitamura's and Yagami's families came under FBI scrutiny when agent Raye Penber investigated potential leaks to Kira. After Penber's death, L launched his own investigation into both households. Things got uncomfortable fast—Mogi, acting on L's orders, approached Kitamura's daughter to suggest she was a suspect, while L himself zeroed in on Light Yagami. Kitamura wasn't happy about how his daughter was treated and pushed Soichiro for answers, but Soichiro couldn't say much without breaking protocol. Eventually Soichiro admitted the real suspect was actually his own son.
Later, Kitamura helped Soichiro escape the Sakura TV studio after he'd seized some Kira broadcast tapes that were causing deaths. Kitamura sent in a full riot squad with buses, shields, and helmets to get him out safely.
His hands got tied when politicians started getting threatened by Kira and the Yotsuba Group, who were secretly backing Kira at the time. Kitamura had to shut down the investigation—he told Soichiro he'd fought against it but had no real choice. He did offer Soichiro a compromise: keep hunting Kira on the side while handling regular police work, but drop all contact with L. Soichiro and the team refused and quit the force instead to keep working with L, which ultimately led to exposing Yotsuba's connection to Kira.
The Death Note: How to Read 13 guidebook notes Kitamura isn't a bad person, just flawed. By the time the Near-Mello arc rolls around, Soichiro's become Deputy Director, though it's unclear whether Kitamura is gone or still around—the source material never says.
Content compiled by AnimeList.moe from publicly available sources.
