Josuke Higashikata/History

History
Josuke apparently developed his stand off-screen in the events of Part III, when Jotaro Kujo and company traveled to Egypt to kill Dio Brando. As a result of Dio being pierced by the stand-creating Arrow, Josuke, possessing the Joestar Bloodline that runs in Jonathan's body, develops a stand, but suffers a fever not unlike that of his half-sister Holly. He is then saved by a then-high school student with a pompadour, who throws his coat under his mother's car in order to allow their car to plow safely through the snow. This then inspires Josuke's admiration for the man with the pompadour.

Diamond is Unbreakable (1999)
Josuke makes his entrance into the JoJo universe as a caring, popular, and slightly naive teenager. Inspired by his police officer grandfather's (on his mother's side) sense of justice, he isn't afraid to fight for those in need. He is confronted by Jotaro with the need to eradicate evil stand users from his hometown, Morioh. He refuses at first, believing that it is not any of his business to worry about the threat posed by other stand users. However, he quickly changes his mind when his grandfather is killed by Angelo, a career criminal and murderer gifted with the power of the water stand Aqua Necklace. With a vow paralleling Peter Parker's, Josuke decides to deliver justice to stand users in his grandfather's place, after which much of the story focuses on "daily life" scenarios of the stand users. Eventually, however, a serial killer comes into the scene, and Rohan Kishibe and Koichi Hirose's encounters with the ghost of his first victim Reimi Sugimoto forces Josuke to gather the stand users he's encountered thus far and warn them of the killer.

After he defeats Angelo, he finds himself approached by his nephew  Jotaro who explains to him about stands and the Arrow which is the catalyst of stands.

He finds out that a man in possession of the arrow has been creating the stand users and goes on to finds him and  his brother. The elder Nijimura explains that he made stand users in order to find one suitable enough to destroy his father who's mutated. Before Keiicho can further explain, he's killed by Red Hot Chili Pepper. Okayasu vows revenge by staying with Josuke.

He soon finds himself being attacked by other stand users on the way to Kira (who changes his identity) before finally witnessing his defeat.

JoJoLion (2011 alternate universe)
Josuke has been shown to have at least one alternate counterpart in the town of Morioh. The first, and most apparent, is the protagonist of Part VIII, who takes up the name written with a different kanji. The second is shown to be the current patriarch of the Higashikata family, Norisuke IV, whose birth name was shown in a family tree to have been "Josuke".