He is fluent in English, and translated from Japanese a book written by his father, Tsunenari Tokugawa titled Edo no idenshi (江戸の遺伝子) or The Edo Inheritance.

He has translated Rajiv Chandrasekaran's book 'Green Zone' and books of Tony Blair, George Soros, George Friedman, Amy Chua, Frances McCall Rosenbluth into the Japanese language.

He has also worked for the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization.

[2] In 2019, Tokugawa attempted to win a seat on the House of Councillors for the Shizuoka District, which he lost.

He ran as a member of the Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan, and campaigned on completely decommissioning the Hamaoka Nuclear Power Plant, which was shut down following the Fukushima nuclear disaster in 2011.