On January 5, 2017, Taguchi, Hiroshi Tanahashi and Manabu Nakanishi defeated "Los Ingobernables de Japon" (Bushi, Evil and Sanada) for the NEVER Openweight 6-Man Tag Team Championship. The trio of Taguchi, Tanahashi and Nakanishi eventually became known as "Taguchi Japan". Taguchi was portrayed as the coach of the pseudo-baseball/soccer/professional wrestling stable. They lost the title back to L.I.J. on February 11 at The New Beginning in Osaka. On March 6 at NJPW's 45th anniversary event, Taguchi unsuccessfully challenged Hiromu Takahashi for the IWGP Junior Heavyweight Championship. Over the following months, Taguchi Japan expanded with several new members, including David Finlay, Juice Robinson, Kushida and Ricochet. On April 4, Taguchi, Ricochet and Tanahashi defeated L.I.J. to bring the NEVER Openweight 6-Man Tag Team Championship back to Taguchi Japan. They lost the title back to L.I.J. on May 3 at Wrestling Dontaku 2017. Taguchi then took part in the 2017 Best of the Super Juniors, where he finished with a record of four wins and three losses, failing to advance to the finals.