As a child, Taniguchi was an enthusiastic arcade gamer, drawn to early titles such as Space Invaders. By high school he was programming his own games and working under contract for a local company in Hiroshima. He later transferred to a high school in the United States, graduating in 1989, before enrolling at Osaka Prefecture University as an engineering student. In 1993, while still in his third year at university, he founded Yuke's at his apartment in Sakai, Osaka, developing around twenty games before graduating.
The company's turning point came with a focus on professional wrestling titles. Toukon Retsuden, released in 1995 through Tomy for the PlayStation, combined grapple and submission mechanics in a way that set it apart from the button-mashing fighting games of the era, selling over a million copies in Japan. Building on that success, Yuke's developed WWF SmackDown! which launched in 2000 and sold two million copies in the United States alone, establishing the studio as the go-to developer for professional wrestling video games and significantly raising WWE's profile in Japan.
In 2005 Taniguchi took the unusual step of purchasing a controlling 51 percent stake in New Japan Pro-Wrestling, acting as a white knight for the struggling promotion. The move cemented his reputation as a central figure in Japanese professional wrestling culture.
Yuke's also developed the official D1 Grand Prix video game series, connecting Taniguchi's gaming business directly to Japanese drift racing. The company supported Team Orange — also known as Team Yuke's — the D1 squad run by Nobushige Kumakubo.
Taniguchi's own motorsport participation was that of a wealthy enthusiast competing in well-organised Japanese series. In 2005 he raced in Super Taikyu on a Nissan 350Z alongside Tarzan Yamada, claiming the series championship. He followed that with a runner-up finish in the 2007 Japan Le Mans Challenge, where he also took a race victory.
His international appearances came in the FIA World Touring Car Championship. In 2008 Taniguchi contested two WTCC rounds in a Honda Accord for the N. Technology team, sharing the entry alongside regular driver James Thompson. He returned to the series in 2010 with Bamboo Engineering, racing the final three events of the season in a Chevrolet Lacetti that had previously been driven by Harry Vaulkhard. A further guest appearance came at the 2013 WTCC Race of Japan, where he stood in for Wiechers-Sport regular Fredy Barth, who had prior commitments elsewhere.
Taniguchi's story is distinctive in motorsport: a self-made software entrepreneur whose company's games helped shape popular perceptions of professional wrestling, who simultaneously pursued a genuine racing career at a competitive amateur and semi-professional level in Japan. His WTCC guest appearances placed him among a small group of non-professional drivers who have competed in a genuine world-level touring car series, while his Yuke's legacy endures through one of the longest-running licensed sports game franchises in gaming history.