The protagonist of the story. He is known for his long bangs and for always wearing a worn out beige coat and a red flat cap. Not long after birth he found himself in many orphanages and facilities. However, he quickly grew tired of the boring life and frequently escaped, eventually finding his way to the Doya Town the story takes place in. Joe is rude and quick to fight, but he can also be very frivolous at times. Because of his rough upbringing he is a delinquent who likes his solitude, but he later grows to appreciate his new friends and rivals. He is not very good at understanding women, and essentially only treats them nice out of giri. He is a bantamweight and his specialties include the cross counter and the No Guard stance. He has extraordinary punching strength, fortitude, and fighting spirit, often standing up after taking killer blows and has been known to counter cross-counters (a double-cross), possessing a raw, natural talent for the sport. He has even countered double crosses with a triple-cross, implying he has high-level technical abilities. Following his fight with Rikiishi, he begins to better develop his guarding.
Teruhiko Aoi
Tooru Rikiishi
Utama
Male
Gym: Shiraki Weight Class: Welterweight Style(s): Hybrid, Brawling Style Stance(s): Orthodox Stance, Brawling Stance Trainer: Shiraki Youko (minimal) Rikiishi and Joe first meet in the juvenile detention center, where Rikiishi was introduced as a boxer who was sentenced to the juvenile detention center because he had punched an member of the audience half to death after they had claimed that the match was rigged in Rikiishi's favor, enraging him.
Shuusei Nakamura
Danpei Tange
Utama
Male
Danpei is Joe's serious, cautious and responsible mentor who gets him started in his boxing career. He is fond of sake, being overly cheerful when drunk which contrasts with his strict everyday self. He is also very polite when talking to people who hold higher ranks than himself, something that annoys Joe, who doesn't care for such things. Before meeting Joe, it is stated that Danpei used to be a boxer himself. However, after the loss of one of his eyes, we learn that he was forced to give up on his own boxing career, aiming to become a coach instead. But due to his violent, strict, passionate, and even desperate approach to training his boxers(who couldn't take it and abandoned him for better gyms), he became jobless and eventually a homeless alcoholic. After meeting Joe and claiming that he has massive potential for the sport, he gives up on drinking due to the former's aversion to alcoholism (only drinking on special occasions) and vows to train him to be Japan's or even the world's best boxer, with the hope of a better tomorrow for the both of them.
Juukei Fujioka
Youko Shiraki
Utama
Female
Yoko Shiraki is a young woman born to the Shirakis, a very wealthy family who is known for their activities in the boxing field. She is the main female protagonist in Ashita no Joe. She is very polite, graceful and kind to other people, always acting exactly as expected from a daughter born to a family with a higher rank, donating to charities from time to time. As so, she clashes in both appearance and personality with most of the other characters who know nothing but poverty and hardship. One of those characters is Joe who is the first to remark that her so called 'kindness' is completely fake, implying her sympathy for the poor is merely a way to make herself feel superior over those who have nothing to eat. She is often very shocked by his actions but as time goes on she comes to be the one who understands him best. She is disliked by Joe as an 'evil woman' who tries to control his life by always having something to do with most the situations he finds himself in later in the series.
Kazuko Nishizawa
Kanichi Nishi
Pendukung
Male
Nishi is Joe's best friend, sparring partner and later he also becomes Joe's trainer. He is a juvenile delinquent. He first meets Joe in a juvenile jail, where they fight each other and Joe defeats him. Nishi later meets Joe at the correction house where they become friends. Nishi's personality changes drastically from an arrogant juvenile delinquent to calm worker at a grocery store. He takes a liking to boxing after watching Joe's match against Rikishi in the detention center. When Joe comes back to Namida Bridge he is surprised to find Nishi at the Tange boxing gym, Nishi joins the gym to learn boxing and to continue being with Joe. Nishi is an averagely good boxer. He was the only useful sparring partner Joe had in the entire story. Nishi has a crush on Noriko Hayashi, who is the daughter of his boss at the grocery store.
Toku Nishio
Carlos Rivera
Pendukung
Male
Carlos Rivera is a Venezuelan bantamweight boxer who ranked #6 in the world. The reason he is called a "A King Without A Crown" is because there is a rumor that the world champion is too afraid to fight him. Yoko Shiraki brings Rivera over to Japan to help Joe recover.
Taichirou Hirokawa
Wolf Kanagushi
Pendukung
He was an up-and-coming bantamweight boxer. In order to get recognition quickly, Joe targeted the bantamweight rookie champion. Wolf was a confident and brash fighter who was easily provoked by Joe into a fist fight, ending in a double knockout.
Osamu Katou
Noriko Hayashi
Pendukung
She is the teenage daughter of the owners of the local grocery store. She has a schoolgirl crush on Joe, which develops into romantic feelings as she matures but Joe initially does not notice her feelings and is even at times implied to be ignoring them.
Tomoyo Ozawa
Robert Harry
Pendukung
Carlos Rivera's manager & childhood bestfriend
Takeshi Kuwabara
Mikinosuke Shiraki
Pendukung
Male
Kei Wada
Sachi
Pendukung
Female
A young girl from a depressed Japanese neighborhood. She idolizes Yabuki Joe and joins him, along with a band of other kids, in committing petty crimes. She continues to believe in and support Joe throughout the story.
Fuyumi Shiraishi
Kinoko
Pendukung
Keiko Ushizaki
Tarou
Pendukung
Hiroshi Masuoka
Hyoromatsu
Pendukung
Kaneta Kimotsuki
Tonkichi
Pendukung
Jouji Yanami
Goromaki Gondou
Pendukung
Chikao Ootsuka
Tiger Ozaki
Pendukung
Tiger Ozaki is the Bantamweight Japanese National Boxing Champion. The Japanese Boxing Commision's heads covertly organized a match between Joe and Tiger without the knowledge of Danpei as a way to crush the up and coming Japanese boxer, believing that giving Joe the title shot early in his career would be too much too soon putting a halt to his momentum. Tiger is first physically seen when Joe Yabuki is invited to train at the Daito Club Boxing Gym. He and his team set up a camera to record Joe's sparring matches there to prepare for their upcoming match with the rising bantamweight star. Joe notices this upon walking into the gym and immediately takes out all of his sparring partners quickly, even fouling the final one. Joe, upset about being spied on then rushes up stairs to the mezzanine to fight Tiger then and there. They are both held back by their trainers and Tiger leaves just as a brawl breaks out between Joe and the Daito Club boxers.
Shouzou Iizuka
Mamoru Aoyama
Pendukung
Mamoru Aoyama was an inmate at the juvenile detention center. Often picked on by the other inmates due to his short stature and feeble nature, he received some training from Danpei, who teaches him dodging techniques that make him a hard opponent to fight against, even managing to score a win against one of the toughest inmates during the juvie boxing tournament.
Kiyoshi Komiyama
Chibi
Pendukung
Chibi is part of the kids gang that follows Joe around. Chibi is often forgotten due to how he has very few lines despite appearing throughout the manga. He is also rarely shown in the anime and only appears in the very first episodes of the kids gang. He has 2 cameos in Ashita no Joe 2, he first appears when he receives a present from Carlos when he's dressed as santa. His second appearance is in episode 43 when he's shown very briefly in the background of the flashback when Joe met Danpei for the first time.
Mitsuko Asou
Kouji Nangou
Pendukung
He is the 2nd ranked bantamweight boxer in Japan.
Takashi Yasuda
Guerilla
Pendukung
Male
He was one of the prisoners at the Juvenile detention center. He used to be the leader of the sixth dormitory until Joe arrived. He came to see Joe's match with Jose Mendoza.
Shouzou Iizuka
Gaikotsu
Pendukung
Male
He was one of the prisoners in the sixth dormitory. He went to the Juvenile detention center due to his parents who kept getting complaints about him peering into the girls bath. He came to see the match between Joe and Jose Mendoza.
Ken Shiroyama
Kumetarou Inaba
Pendukung
Male
The leader of the touring boxing group. He used to be a challenger for the Japanese featherweight title. He later became the only person who understands Joe within the touring boxing group. He urged Joe to go back to Danpei and his friends and to try to get back into the boxing world. He convinces Joe who then leaves the match that they are having. The people watching the match then gets really angry but inaba and the other boxers start fighting them and they make them say ''Banzai!'' to Joe before he leaves.
Kiyoshi Kobayashi
Oigawa
Pendukung
Male
Oigawa is an anime original character. The first time he appears he asks Noriko where Joe's changing room is and he goes to Joe and checks on him without his consent. Later on he builds a hut across the river of Danpei's hut and he joins the gym as the gym's doctor.
Tamio Ooki
Shouhei Inagaki
Pendukung
Male
Inagaki was the National high-school champ. In the anime he decided to spar with Joe because he went into their gym without permission and was being rude, Joe ''lost'' the spar and immediately started disliking Inagaki since he was acting arrogant and was making fun of Joe. They later meet each other again while Joe was taking the pro-test where Inagaki once again was teasing Joe and acting arrogant. (This is where they meet for the first time in the manga) Later on during the test they were picked to spar against each other with the fight being for the most part one-sided on Inagaki's behalf. Joe gets more and more frustrated and later on uses his famous ''no-guard'' stance for the first time which throws Inagaki off guard so he misses. Joe then starts to hit Inagaki with all he got until he is hit outside of the ring where Joe then chases after him outside of the ring beating him up so hard that he almost thinks he had killed him.
Teruhiko Aoi
