During the Japan Fighting Game Publishers Roundtable that occurred on August 1st, Tekken director and producer Katsuhiro Harada revealed that he only began wearing his trademark sunglasses after Capcom asked him to become "a villain."
"I was actually forced by Capcom to wear these sunglasses, originally," Harada explained during the live stream. "They told me, 'Please wear these sunglasses for four years since you're the bad guy.' And now I'm still wearing them 10 years later." The company insisted on him wearing sunglasses while promoting the cross-over fighting game Street Fighter X Tekken.
In the promotion of the title, Capcom's Yoshinori Ono was positioned as the "good guy" in the promotional material, with him representing the Street Fighter series, and Bandai Namco's Harada getting characterized as the villain, and representing the Tekken series. English translator Michael Murray explained, "he said that his sunglasses are something that Capcom asked us for," explaining Harada's need to wear sunglasses.
Since the release of Street Fighter X Tekken, Harada's sunglasses have become somewhat a part of his personal image, with the man always seen wearing sunglasses during public appearances. Even during his cameo during the Tekken 7 reveal trailer for The Walking Dead's Negan, the game director's digital likeness was even spotted wearing his sunglasses.
Street Fighter X Tekken was a fighting title that pitted the two iconic franchises against one another, within the art and gameplay style of the Street Fighter series. The title was released back in 2012, and originally announced alongside Tekken X Street Fighter, which was supposed to be a similar cross-over title by Bandai Namco that had the art and gameplay style reminiscent of the Tekken series. The aforementioned title was never released, and has been in somewhat of a development hell for the better part of the last decade. It is unclear whether the game will ever be made, however the game seems to not be coming anytime soon due to the current success of Tekken 7, as well as other factors.
Beyond learning the origins of Harda's sunglasses, more information was also revealed for Tekken 7. Season 4 was announced, although none of the new fighters were revealed.
Tekken 7 is available now for PlayStation 4, Xbox One and PC.