It’s crazy to think that Katsuhiro Harada is no longer with Bandai Namco after being with them for over 30 years. He’s apparently been approached for a variety of job opportunities involving things such an American defense company and a sushi restaurant.
While Bandai Namco has reaffirmed their commitment to support Tekken 8 without Harada, it’s hard to imagine the company being the same without this legend of a video game producer.
Funnily enough, Harada is well known for his “Don’t Ask Me for Sh**!” shirt. While this meme does seem to paint Harada as being an extremely abrasive sort of person, it was always just meant as a joke.
In reality, Harada was the type of person that believed that people should be paid for the work that they put in. Aris recently recounted a story that demonstrated this of Harada.
At one point, Aris had been providing commentary for Tekken for over 10 years. Bandai Namco asked him if he’d be willing to fly out to an event to act as a commentator.
Upon asking to be paid for this service, Bandai Namco told Aris that it wasn’t in the budget. Despite this, they would pay for his ticket to fly out to the event.
Ultimately, Aris accepted these terms, but was understandably dissatisfied about not being paid. During the event, Harada approached Aris and offered to pay him with his own money.
“During that rehearsal [for the tournament], Harada came up to me — and at this time I didn’t really know him that well and I still don’t know him THAT well, but I’ve been around him many times — [with] a handful hundred dollar bills. I don’t know how much,” said Aris.
“And he said ‘I’m sorry we couldn’t pay you. But I want to pay you.'”
Of course, Aris refused to take Harada’s personal money, but he told Harada that he was extremely appreciative of the gesture. Aris noted that this was something you generally didn’t see in Japanese culture.
A little later, Harada shared his side of the story. Though everything that Aris said seemed to line up, Harada was able to add just a little more context to the story.
“This happened quite a while ago, didn’t it? Now that you mention it, when I found out what was going on with Aris, I remember getting angry and saying, ‘That’s ridiculous — there’s no way that’s acceptable!'” said Harada.
Harada felt like something needed to be done about this situation. He felt so strongly about this that he attempted to pay Aris with his own money.
“So I took the cash I had on me at the time and went to see Aris at the venue, but he said, ‘I’m doing this because I want to — and honestly, I’m grateful,’ and he stubbornly refused my offer and wouldn’t accept it. So he didn’t end up taking that cash after all.”
As stated by Aris himself, Aris refused to take Harada’s money since he felt like it should’ve been Bandai Namco that paid him for his commentary.
Check it all out below:
Aris did 10 years of free commentary for Tekken before requesting to be paid, only for Bandai Namco to refuse, citing a lack of budget.
Harada offered his own cash to Aris to show his personal appreciation. pic.twitter.com/7sBGlzaAv3
— Moonsault Slayer (@VolSkimmer) January 12, 2026
Ah—yeah, This happened quite a while ago, didn’t it?
now that you mention it, when I found out what was going on with Aris, I remember getting angry and saying, “That’s ridiculous—there’s no way that’s acceptable!”
So I took the cash I had on me at the time and went to see Aris… https://t.co/KitSOL9LJg
— Katsuhiro Harada (@Harada_TEKKEN) January 13, 2026