New Taiko no Tatsujin Nijiiro cabs being set up in various arcades in the Philippines on March 2026 (pictured: Quantum Greenhills Mall, San Juan City and Q Power Station, Power Plant Mall in Makati City)
It has been a long, tumultuous journey for the non-Japanese Taiko scene to get to this level of availability. The Philippines, one of the last major countries in South East Asia with an arcade scene but no Taiko, has finally gotten a large batch of Nijiiro cabs of their own. From the information I have been given, they're mostly centered around Metro Manila, but if anyone here is reading from the Philippines, well. It's been 3000 years. Very glad to have more people be able to access the game. Congratulations to the community and have fun!
Things weren't always like this for the game if you didn't live in Japan. It was one of those rare, niche games with a few recognizable songs that sometimes caught the attention of outsiders for a week or so, before being forgotten again because it was just not possible to play. There were offline (refurbished) cabs up to Taiko 14 being shipped out of the country to places like Hong Kong, Taiwan, South Korea and some scattered places in South East Asia (mostly Malaysia and Singapore), and the communities were small but dedicated. Under that environment was when this blog was created, actually.
Then came the online era of the game in 2010 and the landscape shifted overnight.
This goes out to all our newer readers and fans of the game (a lot of you are likely more skilled at the game than I ever could be!), a brief history piece of Taiko's progression from a Japanese curiosity to a regular-ish staple sight in South East Asian arcades.
Older versions of Taiko no Tatsujin, on paper, could not be sold or distributed outside of Japan, as was the case for many other arcade rhythm games at the time, but you could still have them set up overseas without much oversight since it just works without any online DRM or network connection needed. With the HD online Taiko, the one we colloquially call Taiko 0 or Taiko arcade gen 3, this became a huge issue and the unofficial flow of Taiko arcade cabs out of Japan stopped. Not even the countries closer in proximity to Japan got any; everyone was stuck with Taiko 14 at most.
The first cab of Taiko with HD graphics and online support, released in 2011. No territory outside of Japan was able to play this and the subsequent version, Katsu-Don.
Namco had shifted to using Banapassport for storing player data and NBLine as payment for using networked connection for their arcade games, and while this service was available outside Japan for Wangan Midnight, there was no indication that official support for Taiko no Tatsujin would ever come. It was only in Japanese, with mostly if not fully Japanese songs, and a huge tangle of Japanese music and IP licensing to sort out. This made it almost impossible for the game to be exported unless something drastic happened.
It was a stretch, but the international fanbase had to let Namco know there was a sizeable number of people who wanted to play Taiko, willing to put up with the language barrier and it would not be a lost investment for them.
Now, change.org petitions, especially for something like this, almost never work out. After all, a small group of vocal fans isn't going to have the swaying power to influence a business decision for any particular game. Along with a few players/fans from Taiwan and Malaysia, we set the petition page up with very few expectations that it was going to be effective at all. If anything, it gave overseas Taiko fans something to rally behind and find each other as a community. The goal was to just get Namco to notice our existence.
I posted about it on the blog as well, back in April 2013.
The results of the petition (626 signatures, including support from SEA and Mainland China too) and a handwritten letter in multiple languages was personally handed by our Taiwanese representative to Etou-san at the Niconico Chokaigi in 2013, who acknowledged it and mentioned that there was interest to export the game, but indeed there were many song licensing issues that needed sorting out. This would become apparent when the first brand-spanking cabs of new Taiko would be shipped to Taiwan, HK and Malaysia. Yup, we won!
The first Taiko Momoiro cab shipped to South East Asia, at Berjaya Times Square in Kuala Lumpur
Asia skipped out on Sorairo and received the next version, Momoiro, the following year. To my knowledge, the photo above was the first sighting of the game in the whole of South East Asia. The game quickly spread throughout Malaysia from there, landing in arcades in major cities. Several SEA countries soon followed with their own cab shipments, though buy-in of the game was still slow; Singapore only had one Taiko cabinet during this generation and would only get widespread adoption during the Nijiiro era.
As I hinted earlier, the Asian cab was not without its caveats; a big chunk of song licenses and other game music collabs are not available to play (though around 75% of the missing songs eventually got added). Essentially this is a completely separate SKU from the Japanese Momoiro, with its own separate save data on a single Banapassport. Notably, it did not work with Donder Hiroba, so score records and player data were annoying to track. Because Hiroba was not available, Asian players did not have access to Don Challenge or the Katsu Medal shop for buying songs and cosmetics. Some of these were given out in limited time events and in the normal unlock progression, but it was still a sore point in terms of player satisfaction between Momoiro and Green.
Taiko Nijiiro rollout in Asia was delayed by one year after Japan
Of course, personally I was just happy that it was even available to begin with, given how much the overseas Taiko community went through to get the game out of Japan to us. It was a long journey and I have many people to thank for their efforts.
Availability of Taiko in SEA would hover around this level until Namco decided on a full global push for the Taiko IP around the turn of the new decade. Despite the COVID pandemic, Taiko Nijiiro spread to almost all corners of the region by late 2020 to 2021 (existing gen 3 cabs had an interim version called Green 2020 with all older songs unlocked by default and the first batch of Nijiiro originals available). Thailand, Indonesia, even Cambodia and Vietnam received the game. The Philippines, as mentioned, was the last major country to join the fold just last month. Several language options were added, and Taiko could now be played in English, Chinese and Korean.
TWC 2024 logo
This time, Donder Hiroba actually worked! Super overdue, but proper support was finally there. We were even eligible to join in for the Taiko World Championships in 2024, every single country that had Nijiiro at that point (though no one in the region progressed past the Area Challenge). It provided much-needed publicity for Taiko in the region and renewed interest for longtime fans.
The biggest highlight for Taiko SEA happened in 2025. AEON Fantasy, a gigantic chain of arcades and children's play areas was a common sight in several countries here, and the biggest push for Taiko cabs has been from them given the approachable, child-friendly nature of the game. Most outlets operated by AEON Fantasy would have at least one Taiko Nijiiro cab in operation, with at least fifty in Malaysia alone (I don't have exact numbers, unfortunately, but I know there are a lot).
Anyway, they were set to open up a new outlet in Lalaport, Bukit Bintang City Center in the heart of Kuala Lumpur. This mall was owned by Mitsui Group. A Japanese arcade chain in a Japanese-owned mall. The bombshell announcement then dropped: there would be a Donder Station in this arcade. The Taiko-specific space in an arcade that was, before this, exclusive to very specific arcades in Japan, and would play host to Dan Dojo Live events! This is the first Donder Station to be opened in South East Asia and it was a big deal.
VIPs from the Taiko development team and leadership at the first Dan Dojo Live in Malaysia, July 20, 2025
Kimizu-san himself came down to Malaysia to meet the fans and officiate the first ever Dan Dojo Live outside of Japan. More than 20+ players joined this landmark event for the Taiko community and it continues to be held monthly/bi-monthly since then. It even received a shoutout on the official Taiko blog! I can't think of a better example of how far Taiko has come since Taiko Time was first started.
More community photos and promotional of the Malaysian Donder Station from Taiko Team themselves
That's basically the whole recap! Taiko no Tatsujin is now quite well-established in the region and continues to grow. This may be anectdotal, but I have seen a lot more organic interest in the game than there ever was before Nijiiro, and a lot of fierce young competitors are coming up in SEA, carrying the torch for arcade rhythm game culture forward. Here's to more good news for our beloved Japanese drumming game.
Reach out to me in the comments if you have a Taiko story to share, or want to add or fix more details to this feature!
