Its troops were recruited primarily from communities in the Hokuriku region of Japan (Ishikawa, Toyama and Fukui, with its headquarters located within the grounds of Kanazawa Castle.

At the Siege of Port Arthur the division took massive casualties making repeated direct frontal assaults on fortified Russian positions, and lost all of its regimental commanders.

Elements of the 9th Division participated in the Japanese intervention in Siberia against the Bolshevik forces in the Russian Civil War, starting deployment in 1921.

Simultaneously, the division was permanently re-located to Manchukuo as garrison force responsible for border security and internal police duties, subordinated to 3rd army.

The 9th Division, under the command of Lieutenant General Kiichiro Higuchi, stayed in Manchukuo until the Battle of Saipan in July 1944.

However, in December, the division was ordered to relocate again to Taipei under command of 40th army, as the Imperial General Headquarters decided that Taiwan was a more probable target for invasion than Okinawa.