Japanese Genyosha agents operated undercover in Hami and other cities to gain information about the Soviets in Central Asia.
In the Kantogun headquarters, a series of undercover operations was organized, and Jinzō Nomoto was one of those to be sent on such missions.
In 1935, Jinzō Nomoto, from Kagoshima, was sent to Manchukuo and was posted to an intelligence unit in the Japanese Kantogun Army as a Mongolian-language research student specializing in Central Asian issues.
In May 1939, during the Second Sino-Japanese War, Nomoto secretly entered Tibet by disguising himself as a Mongolian and accompanying a Tibetan monk.
Jinzō Nomoto published his memoirs on his experiences in his Tibetan mission during the war in 2001 as Tibet Underground 1939(チベット潜行1939).