Tanaka made a one-night appearance for the World Wrestling Federation on July 28, 1998, in a dark match on Shotgun Saturday Night defeating Christopher Daniels in San Diego, California.

[11] Even with all these losses, Tanaka finished 2001 strong, winning the G1 Jr. Six Man Tag Team Tournament Masahito Kakihara and Masayuki Naruse.

[12] Like the game, the HEAT character often floundered in his early years with the only positive being his victory of the Naeba Cup Tag Tournament alongside Manabu Nakanishi.

Heat finally began to pick up steam in 2003, and defeated Jado in December to become a three-time IWGP Junior Heavyweight Champion.

[11] In September 2004, Heat returned to his birth name and reunited with Kanemoto to challenge Gedo and Jado for the IWGP Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Championship.

Their rivalry continued over the year and culminated at Toukon Festival: Wrestling World where Heat lost his IWGP Junior Heavyweight Championship to Tiger Mask.

On the April 27 episode of Impact!, Goto and Minoru lost to Dutt and Shelley, giving a first round victory and two points to Team USA.

Following his stint in TNA, Minoru managed to find success upon returning to Japan, as he won the 2006 Best of the Super Juniors after defeating Tiger Mask in the finals.

[13] In late 2007, after the break up of CTU, some of the former members, which included Prince Devitt, Hirooki Goto and Minoru along with Shinsuke Nakamura, formed the stable RISE.

Moving on from this loss, he teamed up with Toshizo to take part in 2009's AJPW Junior Tag League, where they defeated Kaz Hayashi and Shuji Kondo.

In late 2010, he won an All Asia Tag Team Championship contendership tournament with KONO but failed to win the titles on the next night.

In June 2013, Tanaka, along with the rest of Stack of Arms, announced his resignation from All Japan in the aftermath of Nobuo Shiraishi taking over as the promotion's new president.

[19] On June 30, Tanaka unsuccessfully challenged Yoshinobu Kanemaru for the World Junior Heavyweight Championship in his final All Japan match.

Unfortunately, Tanaka would fail to advance to the final after going 1-2-1 in four matches, only achieving three points but tied with AJPW Junior Champion Keisuke Ishii.

Tanaka worked All Japan's 45th Anniversary Show in Sumo Hall on August 27, in a brief all-star tag-team match in the upper mid-card where he, Jun Akiyama, Koji Iwamoto, and Takao Omori got a quick victory.

[21][22][23] During the promotion's inaugural event on September 8, Tanaka reunited the Junior Stars with Koji Kanemoto in a tag team match, where they defeated Fujita Hayato and Masaaki Mochizuki.

[38] On July 29, Tanaka, Hayashi and Tajiri lost the UWA World Trios Championship to Andy Wu, Daiki Inaba and Seiki Yoshioka in their fifth defense.

[39] Tanaka made his first appearance in NOAH after 15 years on September 5, 2017, and called for a shot at the GHC Junior Heavyweight Championship, but first defeated Hitoshi Kumano on October 1.

On March 11, 2018, he and Yoshinari Ogawa defeated XX (Hi69 and Taiji Ishimori) to win the GHC Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Championship, but, as Ishimori announced his departure the very next day, Ogawa opted to vacate the titles as he would not accept a title victory over someone focused mentally on leaving rather than focused on the match.

This led to a tournament being set up to crown new champions, where Tanaka and new partner Hi69 defeated Ratel's (Hayata (wrestler) and Yo-Hey) in the finals on April 15 to regain the titles.

At Great Voyage on December 16, the duo's reign came to an end as they were defeated by The Back Breakers (Hajime Ohara & Hitoshi Kumano).

Their eldest daughter Kizuna is a fellow professional wrestler and has been working in Dream Star Fighting Marigold since July 2024.