Yoshimitsu

Yoshimitsu makes his first appearance in 1994's Tekken. In the game's story, Yoshimitsu enters the first tournament as a decoy, so that other members of the Manji Party can steal the tournament's funds unobserved. Yoshimitsu learns about a sumo wrestler called Ganryu, whose disrespectful attitude in the ring cost him his promotion into Yokozuna rank. This base disrespect for the sumo code infuriates Yoshimitsu, and he defeats Ganryu. At a later time Yoshimitsu leads an infiltration on Dr. Boskonovitch's lab in order to steal his Eternal Energy device. Though Yoshimitsu loses his arm during the infiltration, Boskonovitch helps the injured ninja escape and fits him with a mechanical prosthetic.

In Tekken 2, Yoshimitsu learns that Doctor Boskonovitch has been kidnapped by the Mishima Zaibatsu, and enters the second Tekken tournament to rescue him. Kunimitsu returns to the tournament in order to steal the clan's tachi. Yoshimitsu defeats Kunimitsu, and drops out of the tournament to rescue the Doctor after learning his location. Yoshimitsu reappears in Tekken 3, trying to help Boskonovitch whose daughter is suffering from a mysterious disease; 4, attempting to form alliances between the Zaibatsu and the Manji Party; 5, seeking Bryan Fury after he killed members of his clan; and 6, looking for a new sword after realizing that his current one is a cursed weapon driving him insane.

In 2006, Namco released a Yoshimitsu figurine as part of a Tekken 5 set based upon his promotional artwork for the game. While not posable, the PVC figure came with equipable clothing items modeled after those in the game.

Along with Heihachi Mishima, Paul Phoenix and Nina Williams, Yoshimitsu is the only character to appear in every Tekken game. Additionally, Yoshimitsu appears in Namco's Soul series of fighting games, making his debut to the series in Soulcalibur as a unlockable character and returning for the subsequent installments.