At the end of 1900, Akashi was sent as a roaming military attaché in Europe, visiting Germany; Switzerland; Sweden, staying in France in 1901; and moving to Saint Petersburg, Russia in 1902.

[1] While based at Saint Petersburg, he reportedly recruited the famous spy Sidney Reilly and sent him to Port Arthur, to gather information on the Russian stronghold's defenses.

[2] After the start of the war, he used his contacts and network to seek out and to provide monetary and weaponry support to extremist forces attempting to overthrow the Romanov dynasty (see Grafton Affair).

General Yamagata Aritomo reported to Emperor Meiji that Colonel Akashi was worth "more than 10 divisions of troops in Manchuria" toward Japan winning the war.

In 1905, just prior to the end of the war, he was recalled to Japan, divorced his wife, remarried, and joined the ground forces in Korea as a major general in command of the 14th Infantry Division.

Although Akashi is known to have received support from his close contacts within the Kokuryukai secret society, and although he certainly shared in many of their political goals, his name does not appear on their membership lists and it is mostly likely that he was never actually a member.

The Taiwanese donated money equivalent to roughly three million modern-day U.S. dollars for construction of a memorial, and support fund for his family, because Akashi himself was too clean to leave anything behind.

The flamboyant exploits (both real and imagined) of "Colonel Akashi" have been the subject of countless novels, manga, movies and documentary programs in Japan, where he has been dubbed the "Japanese James Bond".