Although he sometimes teamed up with Masaaki Mochizuki and Takashi Okamura, Taru wrestled mostly low level matches, having an on/off rivalry with Osamu Tachihikari and other beginners.

Taru's debut in the Japanese branch of Toryumon happened on February 3, 1998, where he participated along with Mochizuki, Okamura and Keiichi Kono in a special match between Buko Dojo members.

This prompted them to clash with another villainous faction, Taka Michinoku and his group Roughly Obsess and Destroy (RO&D), causing them to feud for the next year.

[5] Taru recruited his former Toryumon enemies Shuji Kondo and Yasshi, as well as the superheavyweight Giant Bernard, and changed his yakuza outlook for a more bizarre, sinister cult leader image.

Under this new character, he now used illegal tactics and weapons like garrotes and lead pipes, and often opted to grant himself disqualifications in the process of beating down opponents with the help of his stablemates.

However, unbeknown to his opponent, Taru had secretly bought the loyalty of Michinoku's partners D'lo Brown and Bull Buchanan, who betrayed RO&D in midst of the bout to give Voodoo Murders the final win.

in July 2007, however, Kojima shocked the All-Japan roster when he turned on them and joined the Voodoo Murders, where he was quickly made the group's co-leader alongside Taru.

[9] Taru's return match, where he and Kazunari Murakami faced Kento Miyahara and Taishi Takizawa, ended in a no contest, following run-ins from "brother" Yasshi and Kengo Nishimura.

Afterwards, Taru, Murakami, Yasshi and Nishimura, reforming the Voodoo Murders, were defeated in an eight-man tag team match by Miyahara, Takizawa, Satoshi Kajiwara and Mitsuhiro Kitamiya.