Sword Saint Isshin

Verified Timeline

Lore & Background

Isshin Chiba was born in Kesennuma, Miyagi, Japan, on June 26, 1968. He graduated from Miyagi Prefecture Kesennuma High School. After high school, he had the idea to become a stage actor, but because he had no experience in such extracurricular activities, he attended Katsuma Voice Actor's Academy in Tokyo. He started his career as a voice actor at age 22 in 1990. In 1997, he landed the role for which he is best known, the role of Jin Kazama from the Tekken fighting game series. Starting from Tekken 3, he voiced Jin in all other Tekken games, including crossovers Namco × Capcom, Street Fighter X Tekken, Project X Zone, Project X Zone 2, The King of Fighters All Star and adaptations Tekken: Blood Vengeance, Tekken: Bloodline and the Japanese dub of the live-action Tekken film. This makes Isshin Chiba the fifth single actor playing a videogame character the longest, behind Ed Boon (Scorpion from Mortal Kombat), Takenobu Mitsuyoshi (Kage Maru from Virtua Fighter), Shin-ichiro Miki (Akira Yuki from Virtua Fighter), and Joseph D. Kucan (Kane from Command & Conquer).

In Their Own Story

Isshin Chiba began his voice acting career in 1990 at age 22. His early roles included an operator in the 1993 film Big Wars and Takashi Matsudaira in the 1993 OVA Please Save My Earth. In 1997, he landed the role of Jin Kazama in the Tekken series, starting with Tekken 3. He has since voiced Jin in all subsequent Tekken games and crossovers, including Namco × Capcom, Street Fighter X Tekken, Project X Zone, Project X Zone 2, The King of Fighters All Star, and the adaptations Tekken: Blood Vengeance (2011), Tekken: Bloodline (2022), and the Japanese dub of the live-action Tekken film. He also voiced Detective Chiba in multiple Detective Conan films, including Captured In Her Eyes (2000), Countdown to Heaven (2001), The Private Eyes' Requiem (2006), and Lupin the 3rd vs. Detective Conan: The Movie (2013). In tokusatsu, he voiced Ultraseven 21 in Ultraman Neos (2000) and Garulu in Kamen Rider Decade (2009).

Reader's Guide

Isshin Chiba has appeared in 35 films since starting acting in 1990. His filmography includes roles in television animation, movies, ONA, OVA, video games, drama CDs, tokusatsu, and dubbing. Notable movie roles include: Big Wars (1993) as Operator, Detective Conan: Captured In Her Eyes (2000) as Detective Chiba, Doraemon: Nobita and the Winged Braves (2001) as Crow Guard, Detective Conan: Countdown to Heaven (2001) as Detective Chiba, Rockman EXE Hikari to Yami no Program (2005) as Barrel, Detective Conan: The Private Eyes' Requiem (2006) as Officer Chiba, Tekken: Blood Vengeance (2011) as Jin Kazama, Lupin the 3rd vs. Detective Conan: The Movie (2013) as Detective Chiba, Thunderbolt Fantasy: The Sword Of Life And Death (2017) as Tie Di Xian, The Legend of the Galactic Heroes: Die Neue These Seiran (2019) as Arthur von Streit, and Mobile Suit Gundam SEED Freedom (2024) as Arnold Neumann. ONA roles include 7 Seeds (2019) as Norikazu Kagami and Tekken: Bloodline (2022) as Jin Kazama. OVA roles include Please Save My Earth (1993) as Takashi Matsudaira, Fencer of Minerva (1994) as Harif, and Detective Conan: Conan and Heiji and the Vanished Boy (2003) as Yousuke Moriguchi. Tokusatsu roles include Ultraman Neos (2000) as Ultraseven 21, Kamen Rider Decade (2009) as Garulu, Tensou Sentai Goseiger (2010) as Matroid Zuteru-S of the Mach, Kamen Rider × Kamen Rider Fourze & OOO: Movie War Mega Max (2011) as Kamen Rider X, and Kaitou Sentai Lupinranger VS Keisatsu Sentai Patranger (2018) as Zarudan Hou.

Did You Know?

• Isshin Chiba was born on June 26, 1968, in Kesennuma, Miyagi, Japan.
• He started his voice acting career at age 22 in 1990.
• He is the fifth longest-running single actor playing a videogame character, behind Ed Boon, Takenobu Mitsuyoshi, Shin-ichiro Miki, and Joseph D. Kucan.
• He voiced Jin Kazama in all Tekken games starting from Tekken 3, including crossovers and adaptations.
• He voiced Detective Chiba in multiple Detective Conan films from 2000 to 2013.