Tekken boss says he just wants to “meet more people” as fans spot LinkedIn post looking for work

Katsuhiro Harada, the boss of Tekken, has moved to reassure fans of the series who spotted him post on LinkedIn that he was now open to new job oppurtunities.

Harada’s LinkedIn page still lists him as executive game director, chief producer and general manager at Bandai Namco, where he has served for 30 years and become the face of the Tekken franchise.

But Harada has also set his profile to “open to work” status and in a short post wrote: “I would like to broaden my horizons by connecting with more people as I look toward the future. I’m interested in roles such as executive producer, executive game director, vice president, business development, business development executive, and marketing.”

“Oh, don’t worry about this,” Harada wrote on X in response to fans questioning whether he was leaving Bandai Namco and the Tekken series behind. “I meet a lot of people on a regular basis (but I don’t actually have that many friends in my private world LOL), I just want to meet more people and expand my horizons in the future.

“I can talk to a lot of people when I turn this option on,” he concluded. “Just that.”

It’s now been 12 months since Tekken 8 launched for PC, PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X/S in January 2024. The game has since been kept updated with new characters, including Final Fantasy 16’s Clive, with a second season pass announced for 2025.

“A marked improvement over Tekken 7 and a perfectly executed balancing act,” Lewis Parker wrote in Eurogamer’s Tekken 8 review, “keeping older players happy while revealing its trademark freedom to newcomers”.

Late last year, we learned that Harada had once asked KFC to let Colonel Sanders join the Tekken series’ roster – a suggestion that was turned down with a disapproving look.