Dr. Ishi Kawajiri is a character from the 1999 Japanese horror film Ring 2. He is a doctor working at a mental hospital where he is assigned to care for a young patient named Masami Kurahashi, who has been rendered mute and traumatized after witnessing a death caused by the cursed videotape. Dr. Kawajiri is a former university classmate of Ryuji Takayama, a key figure from the first film who perished under mysterious circumstances related to the curse. This connection provides him with a personal stake in the unfolding events, even though he was unable to attend Ryuji’s funeral.

In his professional role, Dr. Kawajiri is characterized by a deep, scientific interest in paranormal phenomena. He possesses considerable knowledge about the nature of Sadako Yamamura's powers, specifically the psychic energy that manifests through nensha, the ability to burn images from one's mind onto physical surfaces like photographs. He discovers that his patient Masami has inherited this ability as a result of being touched by Sadako's curse, allowing her to project terrifying imagery from the cursed tape onto nearby television screens. Viewing this not just as a tragedy but as a subject for study, Dr. Kawajiri is driven by a motivation to understand and experimentally test this psychic energy. He arranges a risky experiment designed to transfer Sadako's malevolent energy out of Masami and onto a blank videotape, believing this could neutralize the curse.

His role in the story becomes that of an investigator and catalyst who seeks a scientific solution to a supernatural problem. He later shifts his focus to Yoichi Asakawa, a young boy who is also exhibiting powerful psychic connections to Sadako. Dr. Kawajiri develops a theory that a location with high energy, such as a body of fresh water like a swimming pool, could be used to weaken or drain Sadako's influence from Yoichi. His key relationships are primarily professional and academic; he interacts with the main protagonists, Mai Takano and the reporter Okazaki, as an ally who provides crucial, if dangerous, insights and methods.

Dr. Kawajiri is a man of intellect and curiosity whose commitment to understanding the curse ultimately becomes his undoing. In a climactic attempt to perform his energy-transfer experiment at a swimming pool, the process goes catastrophically wrong. As Sadako's power becomes uncontrollable, Dr. Kawajiri is seen carrying a piece of equipment before falling into the pool, an act interpreted as him being physically dragged to his death by Sadako's spirit. His notable abilities lie not in any psychic power of his own, but in his academic and empirical knowledge of the supernatural, applying a quasi-scientific framework to analyze the curse and develop theories about energy and its transference. This analytical approach sets him apart from other characters who are driven more by fear or personal connection, marking him as a figure whose faith in rational methods proves tragically inadequate against an irrational force.