On 11 May 1942, he was replaced at the head of the division by Lieutenant General Yamamoto Tsutomi.
On 18 March 1943 he became Chief of Staff of the China Expeditionary Army, a post he would hold until 1 February 1945, when he became commander until the end of the War of the Thirteenth Army, posted in the lower Yangtze River area of east central China.