Pillman had worked briefly in Japan in 1991 while with WCW but his longest time there was working for New Japan Pro Wrestling in the middle of 1995 when he participated in the Best of the Super Juniors. When in Japan he wrestled against Dean Malenko, Tatsuhito Takaiwa, Black Cat, Koji Kanemoto, Shinjiro Otani, Gran Hamada, Black Tiger, Wild Pegasus, Alex Wright and El Samurai in singles matches and in tag team matches together with Wright, Norio Honaga, Hamada or Malenko against Akira Nogami, Koji Kanemoto, Takayuki Iizuka, El Samurai, Malenko and Honaga. He also participated in several multi man matches before returning to WCW.