Tokyo in May 2016, accompanied by Hotei, at an event organized by the Italian Embassy in Tokyo, and Hotei's first ever live appearance in Italy, at Zucchero's record-breaking Verona Arena run of dates, in September. 2017–2018 In February 2017 Hotei joined Fornaciari on stage at the Sanremo Music Festival in Italy and returned to Arena di Verona in May for two more performances. In April 2017 Hotei completed his first tour of Europe, performing in 8 cities in Germany, Switzerland, Netherlands, and Belgium over 2 weeks, including Paaspop Festival in the Netherlands. In May 2017 Hotei was special guest at Zucchero's first ever headline show in Tokyo with his own band. Hotei also performed his first headline live shows in Asia outside of Japan, in Taipei and Hong Kong. Having completed the album in July, with recording largely taking place again in London, Hotei released his 17th solo album Paradox worldwide on October 25, 2017. It is his first Japanese-language album since Come Rain Come Shine almost five years earlier. The album was launched with three lyric videos, for the songs "Dreamers are Lonely", "Amplifire" and "Hitokoto". Hotei completed the Paradox tour in Japan in December 2017. His song "Kill to Love You" featuring Matthew Tuck from British heavy metal band Bullet for My Valentine was used in the UK trailers for Russian action movie Attraction in December 2017 and January 2018. Hotei did an exclusive live streaming performance from British Grove Studios in London on March 24, for a NTT phone app. The one hour performance at 1pm was able to be watched live in Japan at 10pm and available for a few weeks thereafter. Hotei continued his live collaborations with Zucchero Fornaciari, joining him at two arena shows in Turin and Milan in January 2018, and then for two shows in Piazza San Marco, in Venice in July, for the Wanted - Un'altra storia Tour. Hotei collaborated again with the Hokuto no Ken franchise in September, for their 35th anniversary, with a new single called "202X", which was accompanied by an animated video and a second song "Boombastic". On October 20, 2018 Hotei performed his first headline show in London for three years, at a special concert at Shepherd's Bush Empire, featuring his largest band presentation in the West, including a horn section, backing vocalists and featuring special guest Zucchero. The concert was again filmed for streaming by