Yukinori Taniguchi

Yukinori Taniguchi (谷口 行規 Taniguchi Yukinori?, born September 27, 1968 in Hiroshima, Hiroshima) is a Japanese businessperson and auto racing driver. He founded Yuke's, a video game developer company, in Sakai, Osaka in 1993.

Contents

Early career

Taniguchi enthused about the game production at high school days and contracted with game company in Hiroshima thus he began professional career. He graduated from the high school in 1989 through studying in the United States and became the chief of the Osaka development department of Compile at the same time when he entered into Osaka Prefecture University (Engineering).

Yuke's

Main article: Yuke's

Professional wrestling

In 1993, Taniguchi founded his own company, Yuke's, at his apartment in Sakai, Osaka. He developed about 20 games until his graduation from the university. After the graduation, he hit on the development of professional wrestling games to make use of 3D graphics performance of PlayStation thus his company's Toukon Retsuden, put on the market from Tomy in 1995, succeeded and came to became a series.

The success of the Toukon Retsuden series made Yuke's obtain capital and the company developed Evil Zone the first game to sell under the name of the Yuke's. The game did not succeed in Japan but the loss has recovered by sales in foreign countries.

Because of the experience, he determined to aim at an United States market and developed WWF SmackDown!. The game that had been put on the market in 2000 not only was sold 2 million in the United States but also made success also in Japan. In Japan, the game contributed to the eminence improvement of World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) that was the base of the game.

In 2005, Taniguchi bought a part of the stocks of New Japan Pro Wrestling that slumping business, and supporting management ardently. This action has raised his eminence among the professional wrestling fan in Japan.

Racing career

Taniguchi supported Nobushige Kumakubo's Team Orange (Team Yuke's) in the D1 Grand Prix and Yuke's developed game series of the event.

He entered in some spec racing series as a driver. In 2005, he competed in Super Taikyu on Nissan 350Z with Tarzan Yamada and became series champion. In 2007, he competed in the Japan Le Mans Challenge, and won a race and became runner-up in the season.

In 2008 Taniguchi competed in two rounds of the FIA World Touring Car Championship (WTCC) in a Honda Accord for the N. Technology team alongside regular driver James Thompson.[1] After a break, Taniguchi returned to the WTCC in 2010 with Bamboo Engineering, racing in the final three events of the season in a Chevrolet Lacetti, previously driven by Harry Vaulkhard

Complete WTCC results

(key) (Races in bold indicate pole position) (Races in italics indicate fastest lap)

Year Team Car 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 DC Points
2008 N.Technology Honda Accord Euro R BRA
1
 BRA
2
 MEX
1
 MEX
2
 ESP
1
 ESP
2
 FRA
1
 FRA
2
 CZE
1
 CZE
2
 POR
1
 POR
2
 GBR
1
 GBR
2
 GER
1
 GER
2
 EUR
1
 EUR
2
 ITA
1
21		 ITA
2
Ret		 JPN
1
20		 JPN
2
19		 MAC
1
 MAC
2
 NC 0
2010 bamboo-engineering Chevrolet Lacetti BRA
1
 BRA
2
 MAR
1
 MAR
2
 ITA
1
 ITA
2
 BEL
1
 BEL
2
 POR
1
 POR
2
 GBR
1
 GBR
2
 CZE
1
 CZE
2
 GER
1
17		 GER
2
14		 ESP
1
17		 ESP
2
18		 JPN
1
9		 JPN
2
16		 MAC
1
13		 MAC
2
Ret		 18th 4
2011 bamboo-engineering Chevrolet Lacetti BRA
1
18		 BRA
2
15		 20th 6
Chevrolet Cruze 1.6T BEL
1
14		 BEL
2
DSQ		 ITA
1
13		 ITA
2
11		 HUN
1
11		 HUN
2
11		 CZE
1
15		 CZE
2
14		 POR
1
15		 POR
2
15		 GBR
1
16		 GBR
2
13		 GER
1
17		 GER
2
14		 ESP
1
14		 ESP
2
16		 JPN
1
7		 JPN
2
14		 CHN
1
20		 CHN
2
DNS		 MAC
1
WD		 MAC
2
WD

References

  1. ^ "JAPANESE DRIVER JOINS THOMPSON". World Touring Car Championship official website. 2008-08-01. http://www.fiawtcc.com/fiawtcc/sport_sto1651973.shtml. Retrieved 2008-08-01. 

External links