As of today, the latest Taiko no Tatsujin music contest's website is fully operational, from rules to entry submission capabilities! Click here to wander around on your own, with Japanese and English language support like in the past few editions.
For the highlights on time schedule and the most relevant changes, we'll see you after the jump.
Song submissions on the website will be open for a week only, starting today and ending on June 21st, 6pm Japan Time, with all submitted works being publicly available on the website to listen to after the deadline. The following Summer months will be reserved for judges' evaluation of the craft with the main winners being revealed in September. The User Public Voting rounds will occur soon after on the Fall months, with details yet to be fully profiled.
The judges for music evaluation on the Taiko Team side are three returning faces from the Taiko Team: Etou, Masubuchi and Rihito/Licht Tsuboi. For the occasion of the 25th Taiko no Tatsujin anniversary, the latter couple has chosen to be represented as a photo on their selves from 25 years ago, no less!
These three, on the other hand, are the guest judges that will comment on the chosen winners/honorable mentions picked by the main evaluating trio: Tatsh, t+pazolite and Linda AI-CUE (with a 25-years time lapse profile, no less!). Like always, the initial impressions left by all six judges are listed in the contest overview website subsection, in both languages.
And now, a quickfire round of elements pertaining entry submissions:
- According to the criteria adherence of single/unit artists upon song submission, works will be classed in one or both (if applicable) special categories: First-Time Selection for those whose works were never featured in Taiko no Tatsujin to date and U-25 Selection, for every contestant aged 25 or under as of April 1st, 2026.
- Song submissions from units have to make it so that each member fulfills the Selection quota for the song to be classed as one/both of those subcategories.
- A minimum of one unique winner will be picked for both First-Time Selection and U-25 Selection subgroups.
- The submission of songs using generative AI on any level is prohibited; as a further guarantee on that end, all contestants will be called to check the appropriate disclaimer and to submit MIDI data with all the programmed portions of the song for further verification (said MIDI entries will not be made public).
