Kanemoto practiced
Judo during his high school days and won a few championships as a professional before being recruited by the
New Japan Pro-Wrestling (NJPW)
Dojo. He debuted in November 1990, wrestling against
Michiyoshi Ohara. In March 1992, he portrayed
Tiger Mask in its third incarnation, succeeding
Mitsuharu Misawa. In January 1994, he famously lost a "mask vs. mask" match against popular cruiserweight
Jushin Thunder Liger at
Battlefield. Since 1994 he has wrestled under his own name for NJPW. His style used to be the classic
junior heavyweight wrestling, but repeated high-flying moves, the fans' change in taste, and inherent damage on his body put an incentive on him to use
shoot-style taught by
Kazuo Yamazaki, largely as a modification of his wrestling persona. Hard shoot kicks combined with scientific wrestling are his current trademark along with the
facewash, which always gets the crowd going in a
football stadium-like chant. Kanemoto was the first man to defend the
IWGP Junior Heavyweight Championship in the
United States, a match against
Alex Wright at
Starrcade '95: World Cup of Wrestling (although
World Championship Wrestling did not announce it as such). He also holds a victory over revered MMA fighter
Kazushi Sakuraba in shoot-style wrestling. He worked for a few matches for WCW in late 1995. In the early 2000s Kanemoto formed a popular tag team with
Minoru Tanaka called "Jr. Stars" the 2 enjoyed a lengthy reign as IWGP Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Champions, but before they could receive a rematch for their titles, Kanemoto was injured. Kanemoto made a very controversial return, turning on Tanaka and siding with
Masahiro Chono's "Team 2000" Stable. As a reward for his defection Chono gave him his own sub-group to lead named "Team 2000 Jr."; among their ranks were
Gedo,
Jado, &
Akira. During this time, Kanemoto wore entrance gear very similar to Chono, as a way to show "he was a boss". After Team 2000 dissolved he became a calmer, much more calculating individual and it was apparent that his days of a rude, arrogant
punk were over. In 2003, in an attempt to regain the Junior Heavyweight Tag Team titles from rival promotion
Pro Wrestling Noah, he formed a tag team with Jushin Thunder Liger known as "The Unbeatables"; the two held on to the titles until November, when Kanemoto fractured his left cheekbone, and were forced to vacate them. On May 3, 2006, Kanemoto defeated
Tiger Mask IV to win the IWGP Junior Heavyweight Title for the
fifth time. In the
2006 G1 Climax, Kanemoto reached the semi-final, the first junior heavyweight to achieve this feat. Along with
Hiroshi Tanahashi, he made it to the finals of the
G1 Tag League two consecutive seasons – the
2006 and
2007 editions. Also in 2007 he became the first junior heavyweight since
Bas Rutten to receive an
IWGP Heavyweight Championship match. Although he lost this match against his tag team partner Hiroshi Tanahashi he was revered for his performance, especially after kicking out of Tanahashi's
dragon suplex finish after only a 1 count. After this match it was regarded that Kanemoto was not only the top junior heavyweight but one of the top talents that New Japan has in its entirety. On January 2, 2009, at a Zero-1 show Kanemoto announced his engagement to Zero-1
joshi wrestler Hikaru. The two have since divorced. On June 14, 2009, Kanemoto forced
Prince Devitt to submit to his trademark Ankle Lock, winning the
Best of the Super Juniors tournament for the third time, becoming only the second man to do so. On May 8, 2010, Kanemoto and
El Samurai defeated
Apollo 55 (Prince Devitt and
Ryusuke Taguchi) in the finals of an eight team tournament to win the IWGP Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Championship. Just over two months later, on July 19, Kanemoto and El Samurai lost the Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Championship to Devitt and Taguchi. On August 22 Kanemoto and Tiger Mask IV took part in a
Pro Wrestling Noah event and defeated
Ricky Marvin and
Taiji Ishimori to win Noah's
GHC Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Championship. They would lose the title to
Atsushi Aoki and
Naomichi Marufuji on December 24, 2010. In late 2011 he began to work more frequently in
All Japan Pro Wrestling (AJPW) and teaming with
Minoru Tanaka and on January 31, 2013, Kanemoto officially quit New Japan Pro-Wrestling to join All Japan Pro Wrestling. In June 2013, Kojimoto also announced his resignation from All Japan in the aftermath of Nobuo Shiraishi taking over as the promotion's new president. Though Kanemoto did not officially join
Keiji Mutoh's splinter promotion
Wrestle-1, he did take part in the promotion's
inaugural event on September 8, reuniting the Junior Stars with Minoru Tanaka in a tag team match, where they defeated
Fujita Hayato and
Masaaki Mochizuki. On May 24, 2015, Kanemoto returned to his Tiger Mask persona, when he took part in
Lucha Libre AAA World Wide's
Lucha Libre World Cup in
Mexico City, alongside
Kenzo Suzuki and
Masamune as Team AJPW. They were defeated in the first round of the tournament by Team MexLeyendas (
Blue Demon Jr.,
Dr. Wagner Jr. and
El Solar). ==Championships and accomplishments==