Ryohei Higashikata

Ryohei is a man in middle age whose hair has gone grey. His face carries a square jaw and a cleft chin, and he is only ever pictured in his standard-issue police uniform.

Ryohei has a playful, joking side, once pointing a fake gun at Josuke as a prank and brushing aside a citizen's complaint simply because the accused turned out to be his own daughter. Beneath the humor, though, lies a sincere devotion to protecting the people of Morioh, a quality Josuke deeply admired in him.

Born in Morioh around 1944, Ryohei fathered his daughter Tomoko at eighteen and went on to serve the town as a police officer for thirty-five years, at one point arresting a young criminal named Anjuro Katagiri. Though he never earned a promotion, he worked tirelessly to keep the community safe.

Early in Diamond is Unbreakable he is seen dismissing a man's demand to arrest a woman, revealing that she is his daughter and walking Tomoko home. The next morning, returning from an overnight shift, he notices a bottle in Josuke's room that secretly holds Anjuro's Stand, Aqua Necklace. Deceived into thinking it contains whiskey, he opens it, and the Stand escapes to attack him. Josuke finds him bleeding and heals his physical wounds, but he is already dead. His murder, which others attribute to a brain tumor, drives Josuke to swear he will rid Morioh of malevolent Stand users. In the live-action film he takes a larger role, embodying the theme of protecting the town before he is again killed by Aqua Necklace.