At age 28, he was employed as a bouncer at a public bath in Nara, where he dodged knives thrown at him by local Yakuza after denying them entry.

Though his tenure was prior to the federation's official move to no-holds-barred competition, he competed in several shoot fights, including against shootboxer Mitsuya Nagai in a decision loss and kickboxing legend Rob Kaman, under mixed rules.

After being knocked down early in the fight, Kakuda pummeled Son with unanswered punches and kicks to score a knockout win.

His triumph was followed by a more sobering encounter with multi-time world champion Stan Longinidis, who controlled the match with powerful combinations before defeating Kakuda with low kicks.

The streak led to a shot at the vacant WMTC Cruiserweight World Championship at K-1 Braves '97 against legendary Muay Thai fighter Changpuek Kiatsongrit.

Faring better in his following six matches, Kakuda endured no worse than a draw to mixed martial artist Ryūshi Yanagisawa and gained his only victory over a world champion by defeating Duncan Airlie James.

Despite being the match favorite due to Tarō's 0-5 kickboxing record, Kakuda found himself in trouble when the former yokozuna made use of his tremendous size advantage by swarming his opponent, wearing him down with knees and uppercuts.

[2] Kakuda's next match would mark his second retirement from kickboxing, taking place at the K-1 World Grand Prix 2005 in Osaka – Final Elimination.

[6] Kakuda has two children; he named his son Kenshiro (賢士朗) and daughter Yuria (友里亜) after characters of Fist of the North Star.