Kazuya Mishima is a Japanese martial artist and the son of Heihachi Mishima, the former CEO of the Mishima Zaibatsu - a powerful worldwide business conglomerate. He has a deep-seated hatred and a long-lasting rivalry with his father.Now his son Jin Kazama has a rivalry with his father Kazuya.
Kazuya Mishima was born as the only son of Heihachi Mishima, the CEO and sole shareholder of the Mishima Zaibatsu - a powerful worldwide business conglomerate. Heihachi raised Kazuya harshly; in his mind, he needed to forge a strong heir to eventually succeed him as head of the Zaibatsu. Though Kazuya did not share his father's vision and was a gentle child, he was forced to endure the harsh upbringing.
Eventually, Heihachi grew tired of Kazuya's "weakness". As a test of his son's strength, Heihachi cast a five-year-old Kazuya from a cliff into a deep ravine. If Kazuya was to be Heihachi's successor to the Mishima Zaibatsu throne, he was not only to survive the fall, but to climb back up the rocky cliff and seek out his father.
Kazuya was nearly killed from the impact of the fall, but his survival was assured through a deal with the devil, who promised him the power to take revenge on his father. Reveling in his newly aquired strength, Kazuya participated in martial arts tournaments around the world. Never losing a single battle, he was hailed as an undefeated champion. During this time, the American judo expert, Paul Phoenix, was the only fighter to managed a draw with Kazuya. When the first King of Iron Fist Tournament, a martial arts tournament hosted by the Mishima Zaibatsu, was announced, Kazuya signed up without hesitation, seizing his opportunity for vengeance.
Easily winning the preliminary death matches around the world, Kazuya became one of the eight finalists in the tournament. Kazuya overcame all of his opponents, reaching his penultimate fight against Lee Chaolan, Heihachi's newly adopted son. Kazuya defeated Lee, and went on to face his father in the final round. Fueled by his hatred for his father and utilizing the power of Devil, Kazuya defeated Heihachi. Apathetic towards the tournament's proposed one billion dollar prize, Kazuya dropped his father's unconscious body from the same cliff he had been thrown from as a child.
After Heihachi's disappearance, Kazuya was made CEO of the the Mishima Zaibatsu. The Zaibatsu became more corrupt than ever during Kazuya's reign, engaging in many illegal activities such as assassination, extortion, drug dealing and the smuggling of endangered species. Two years after inheriting the Mishima Zaibatsu, Kazuya hosted the King of Iron Fist Tournament 2.
Heihachi, having survived the battle with Kazuya and subsequent fall from the cliff, also entered the tournament. Having trained and meditated in the hills after his defeat, Heihachi's strength had greatly increased and after a showdown with Kazuya, he emerged as the victor of the tournament. Having defeated both Kazuya and Lee during the contest, Heihachi reclaimed the Mishima Zaibatsu. To ensure the death of Kazuya, who had proven to be a great threat to his position, Heihachi cast him into the mouth of an active volcano.
Some time during the tournament, before his defeat and death at the hands of his father, Kazuya developed an intimate relationship with Jun Kazama, with whom he conceived a son, Jin. Also, throughout the tournament, Devil was in constant conflict with Angel (representing the "good side" of Kazuya) over the complete control of Kazuya's soul. Devil emerged as the stronger force, and the "Angel" part of Kazuya's conscience was silenced.[1]
The story for Tekken 3 begins by stating that, before his defeat at the hands of Heihachi, Kazuya became intimate with Jun Kazama, who conceived their son, Jin Kazama.
Kazuya does not appear as a playable character in Tekken 3, but he appears in Eddy Gordo's ending in a photo, and Eddy realizes that he is the man behind the murder of his father.
Kazuya also appears in the non-canonical game, Tekken Tag Tournament. Though he is featured prominently within promotional art and packaging for the game, it bears no weight on the series' official story.
Kazuya returns as a central character in Tekken 4. His prologue in the game states that he was revived by G Corporation, a rival genetics company of the Mishima Zaibatsu, a few days after his death. Kazuya allows the company to perform various experiments on him in order to learn the true nature of the Devil Gene within his body, but an attack on the research facility by the Tekken Force twenty-one years later (sent by Heihachi to retrieve Kazuya's remains for the Devil Gene) impedes further success. Kazuya fights the Tekken Forces off, and vows to get his revenge on Heihachi in the recently announced King of Iron Fist Tournament 4, at the same time extract the half of his Devil Gene stored in the body of his son, Jin Kazama.
Kazuya makes it to the finals and faces his father. After he defeated his father, Heihachi took him to Hon-Maru, a Mishima compound where Jin is being held captive (he was captured by the Tekken Forces on his way to fight Kazuya in the seventh stage). Kazuya knocks Heihachi out of the room with his psychic powers, and subconsciously taunts Jin in order to wake him up. However, the plan backfires, and an enraged Jin defeats both Kazuya and Heihachi in battle, but spares their lives after seeing a vision of his mother, after which he takes flight.
Moments after Jin's departure from Hon-Maru, Kazuya and Heihachi are assaulted by a squadron of Jack-4s sent to assassinate them by G Corporation (no longer needing him, they betrayed Kazuya). Kazuya manages to flee and leave his father for dead (although Heihachi survives). Vowing to get revenge on G Corporation for their betrayal, Kazuya enters the King of Iron Fist Tournament 5, in which he discovers his father's survival and the sponsor of the tournament: Jinpachi Mishima.
Despite not winning the fifth tournament, Kazuya discovers the division of G Corporation that tried to kill him, and kills them all in revenge, becoming the head of the company and using it as the only powerful opposition to the Mishima Zaibatsu, led by Jin, who has begun world conquest and declared war on several nations. By this time, the world's population sees G Corporation as it's only saviour, and Kazuya uses the company's influence to his advantage: to stop Jin from taking over his plans for world domination, Kazuya puts a price on Jin's head, dead or alive, and decides to enter the King of Iron Fist Tournament 6 (announced by Jin) to settle the score once and for all with his son.
In the original entry to the Tekken franchise, Kazuya was considered to be the primary protagonist. And for all intents and purposes, there was no reason to believe differently. According to differing sources (such as Tekken: The Motion Picture and a brief scene in Ling Xiaoyu's Tekken 5 ending), Kazuya was actually quite frail and timid
as a boy and was the victim of years of abuse at the hands of Heihachi. Indeed, Kazuya originally entered the first Rave War/King of Iron Fist Tournament in order to face off against his father, who was played up to be a corrupt corporate tyrant. Kazuya's clothing of choice, simple white pants and red gloves and footpads, even helped to draw parallels to another "mysterious loner" hero similar to Street Fighter's Ryu. So most people (both within the g
ame and in real life), simply wrote Kazuya off as the cliché fighting game hero.
There was only one clue as to Kazuya's true intents and nature: His secret PS One palette swap, which turned out to be Devil.
Tekken 2 saw Kazuya's true nature revealed in full. After killing his father (or so he thought), instead of bringing justice to the Mishima Zaibatsu and righting the wrongs of his father, Kazuya repeated the corrupt practices of his father and turned it into an even more ruthless organization. While Heihachi was merely ruthless, Kazuya was absolutely without conscience. He hired assassins to eliminate any of his critics or rivals (such as the father of Eddy Gordo), he attempted to extort money from several businesses and organizations, and he even smuggled endangered species and conducted genetic experiments on them (Alex and Roger). Of course, the reason for his evil deeds was because he had sold his soul to Devil all those years ago, and had allowed his hatred for Heihachi to consume him. Kazuya still had good within him (as represented by Angel), which constantly battled his evil side, and this would turn out to be his downfall. Heihachi managed to take advantage of his son's confusion caused by this internal war and defeated him in the second King of Iron First Tournament. Kazuya was then thrown into a volcano and killed, while the Devil in his body escaped and eventually made contact with Kazuya's son, who succeeded his father as the series' new protagonist.
Of course, G Corporation eventually located Kazuya's remains and confiscated them. At this point, they regenerated Kazuya's body and then Kazuya made a deal to remain hidden within G Corporation's labs and be tested on. Kazuya had learned from his mistakes. The next time he faced Heihachi, he wanted to be in full control of his Devil powers. Of course, this plan did not go as Kazuya intended; Heihachi ruined it by invading G Corporation and stealing their research.
Since his original appearance, Kazuya's character has gone through many transformations: From hero, to villain, to anti-hero and back again. Whatever was left of his good side appears to be totally suppressed by his Devil persona. Kazuya no longer fights against his darker side, and the two seem to have come to mutual terms, as Kazuya can call upon Devil whenever he likes now (such as in his Tekken 5 introduction). This makes him one of the more unique protagonists in fighting games and makes him quite popular amongst Tekken fans.