{"id":53340,"date":"2025-10-28T02:00:00","date_gmt":"2025-10-27T17:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/?p=53340"},"modified":"2025-10-27T16:07:44","modified_gmt":"2025-10-27T07:07:44","slug":"actor-behind-the-exit-8s-walking-man-cant-go-out-in-public-without-being-recognized-anymore","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/actor-behind-the-exit-8s-walking-man-cant-go-out-in-public-without-being-recognized-anymore\/","title":{"rendered":"Actor behind The Exit 8&#8217;s Walking Man can&#8217;t go out in public without being recognized anymore\u00a0"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>Yamato Kochi has risen to a whole new level of fame following his portrayal of the Walking Man in the <a href=\"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/the-exit-8-movie-producer-on-how-a-game-without-a-story-became-japans-highest-grossing-live-action-film-of-2025\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">movie adaptation<\/a> of Kotake Create\u2019s <strong>The Exit 8<\/strong>. Previously known for his roles in Japanese dramas such as Antihero and The Bee, as well as stage plays of William Shakespeare\u2019s Richard III, Macbeth, and Hamlet, Kochi has since found it difficult to go out in public without people recognizing him as the creepy guy from the subway.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Exit 8 | Official Trailer\" width=\"1160\" height=\"653\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/emZZexEJO8c?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>In an interview with <a href=\"https:\/\/jisin.jp\/entertainment\/interview\/2529242\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Josei Jishin<\/a>, Kochi says he was warned about his character\u2019s impact by The Exit 8\u2019s director beforehand:&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cThe director told me, \u2018Get ready, The Walking Man (lovingly nicknamed \u201cUncle\u201d by Japanese Exit 8 fans) is going to be an icon in this movie.\u2019 I was a little excited about it, but I never imagined it would get this much attention.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>While Kochi is happy that his family is proud of him, his newfound fame has forced him to don a hat whenever he goes out in public. Apparently, people often swarm him once they recognize him as \u201cthe guy from Exit 8.\u201d One instance involved Kochi\u2019s son suddenly taking off his father\u2019s hat and shouting \u201cYamato Kochi from Exit 8!\u201d while in a shopping mall. Though Kochi found it embarrassing, he was happy that his son recognized his work.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Despite having very few spoken lines in the movie, the Walking Man\u2019s constant presence throughout The Exit 8 is a huge part of what makes it so unsettling. By carefully adjusting his body movements and expressions, Kochi made his character feel eerily manufactured, as though it were created using CGI. Kochi\u2019s unique mannerisms (specifically his walk), combined with his appearance, made his performance one of the film&#8217;s biggest highlights for many viewers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Related articles:\u00a0<br><a href=\"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/the-exit-8-movie-wins-best-poster-design-award-at-cannes-film-festival\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">The Exit 8 movie wins Best Poster Design award at Cannes Film Festival<\/a>\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/20231215-24508\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\"><strong>The Exit 8 players get thirst trapped by middle-aged NPC man\u00a0<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Yamato Kochi, the actor behind The Exit 8&#8217;s unsettling subway man, can&#8217;t go out in public without a hat anymore.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":67,"featured_media":53343,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_gspb_post_css":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[62,3],"tags":[17],"class_list":["post-53340","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-indie-games","category-news","tag-japan-related-news"],"blocksy_meta":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.2 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Actor behind The Exit 8&#039;s Walking Man can&#039;t go out in public without being recognized anymore\u00a0 - AUTOMATON WEST<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Yamato Kochi, the actor behind The Exit 8&#039;s unsettling subway man, can&#039;t go out in public without a hat anymore.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/actor-behind-the-exit-8s-walking-man-cant-go-out-in-public-without-being-recognized-anymore\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Actor behind The Exit 8&#039;s Walking Man can&#039;t go out in public without being recognized anymore\u00a0 - AUTOMATON WEST\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Yamato Kochi, the actor behind The Exit 8&#039;s unsettling subway man, can&#039;t go out in public without a hat anymore.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/actor-behind-the-exit-8s-walking-man-cant-go-out-in-public-without-being-recognized-anymore\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"AUTOMATON WEST\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2025-10-27T17:00:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/20251027-53340-header.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1278\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"741\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Carlos &quot;Zoto&quot; Zotomayor\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@AUTOMATON_ENG\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@AUTOMATON_ENG\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Carlos &quot;Zoto&quot; Zotomayor\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Actor behind The Exit 8's Walking Man can't go out in public without being recognized anymore\u00a0 - AUTOMATON WEST","description":"Yamato Kochi, the actor behind The Exit 8's unsettling subway man, can't go out in public without a hat anymore.","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/actor-behind-the-exit-8s-walking-man-cant-go-out-in-public-without-being-recognized-anymore\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Actor behind The Exit 8's Walking Man can't go out in public without being recognized anymore\u00a0 - AUTOMATON WEST","og_description":"Yamato Kochi, the actor behind The Exit 8's unsettling subway man, can't go out in public without a hat anymore.","og_url":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/actor-behind-the-exit-8s-walking-man-cant-go-out-in-public-without-being-recognized-anymore\/","og_site_name":"AUTOMATON WEST","article_published_time":"2025-10-27T17:00:00+00:00","og_image":[{"width":1278,"height":741,"url":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/20251027-53340-header.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Carlos \"Zoto\" Zotomayor","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@AUTOMATON_ENG","twitter_site":"@AUTOMATON_ENG","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Carlos \"Zoto\" Zotomayor","Est. reading time":"2 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/actor-behind-the-exit-8s-walking-man-cant-go-out-in-public-without-being-recognized-anymore\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/actor-behind-the-exit-8s-walking-man-cant-go-out-in-public-without-being-recognized-anymore\/"},"author":{"name":"Carlos \"Zoto\" Zotomayor","@id":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/#\/schema\/person\/2812ca8facd5f161edfbc531cf81eb31"},"headline":"Actor behind The Exit 8&#8217;s Walking Man can&#8217;t go out in public without being recognized anymore\u00a0","datePublished":"2025-10-27T17:00:00+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/actor-behind-the-exit-8s-walking-man-cant-go-out-in-public-without-being-recognized-anymore\/"},"wordCount":346,"commentCount":0,"publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/#organization"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/actor-behind-the-exit-8s-walking-man-cant-go-out-in-public-without-being-recognized-anymore\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/20251027-53340-header.jpg","keywords":["News (Japan-related)"],"articleSection":["Indie Games","News"],"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"CommentAction","name":"Comment","target":["https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/actor-behind-the-exit-8s-walking-man-cant-go-out-in-public-without-being-recognized-anymore\/#respond"]}]},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/actor-behind-the-exit-8s-walking-man-cant-go-out-in-public-without-being-recognized-anymore\/","url":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/actor-behind-the-exit-8s-walking-man-cant-go-out-in-public-without-being-recognized-anymore\/","name":"Actor behind The Exit 8's Walking Man can't go out in public without being recognized anymore\u00a0 - AUTOMATON WEST","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/actor-behind-the-exit-8s-walking-man-cant-go-out-in-public-without-being-recognized-anymore\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/actor-behind-the-exit-8s-walking-man-cant-go-out-in-public-without-being-recognized-anymore\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/20251027-53340-header.jpg","datePublished":"2025-10-27T17:00:00+00:00","description":"Yamato Kochi, the actor behind The Exit 8's unsettling subway man, can't go out in public without a hat anymore.","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/actor-behind-the-exit-8s-walking-man-cant-go-out-in-public-without-being-recognized-anymore\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/actor-behind-the-exit-8s-walking-man-cant-go-out-in-public-without-being-recognized-anymore\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/actor-behind-the-exit-8s-walking-man-cant-go-out-in-public-without-being-recognized-anymore\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/20251027-53340-header.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/20251027-53340-header.jpg","width":1278,"height":741,"caption":"Walking Man in Exit 8"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/actor-behind-the-exit-8s-walking-man-cant-go-out-in-public-without-being-recognized-anymore\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"\u30db\u30fc\u30e0","item":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Actor behind The Exit 8&#8217;s Walking Man can&#8217;t go out in public without being recognized anymore\u00a0"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/#website","url":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/","name":"AUTOMATON WEST","description":"AUTOMATON is a website that covers the Japanese gaming world. We bring you the news on video games from Osaka and Tokyo.","publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/#organization"},"potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/#organization","name":"\u682a\u5f0f\u4f1a\u793e\u30a2\u30af\u30c6\u30a3\u30d6\u30b2\u30fc\u30df\u30f3\u30b0\u30e1\u30c7\u30a3\u30a2","url":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/04\/activegamingmedia_logo.png","contentUrl":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/04\/activegamingmedia_logo.png","width":374,"height":190,"caption":"\u682a\u5f0f\u4f1a\u793e\u30a2\u30af\u30c6\u30a3\u30d6\u30b2\u30fc\u30df\u30f3\u30b0\u30e1\u30c7\u30a3\u30a2"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/"},"sameAs":["https:\/\/x.com\/AUTOMATON_ENG","https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/channel\/UCabvYnvuUUbbGUrxkaFRgSA"]},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/#\/schema\/person\/2812ca8facd5f161edfbc531cf81eb31","name":"Carlos \"Zoto\" Zotomayor","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/04\/display-pic-100x100.jpg","url":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/04\/display-pic-100x100.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/04\/display-pic-100x100.jpg","caption":"Carlos \"Zoto\" Zotomayor"},"description":"Automaton West writer. Zoto has been playing video games for 30+ years now but has only recently come to grips with PC gaming. When he isn't playing video games, he watches romance anime and gets mad when his best girl never wins.","url":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/author\/carlos-zotomayor\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/53340","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/67"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=53340"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/53340\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":53344,"href":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/53340\/revisions\/53344"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/53343"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=53340"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=53340"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=53340"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}