As a young samurai, he joined the clan’s Seigitai militia and fought in the Boshin War during the Meiji Restoration against the Tokugawa shogunate.

After graduating from the predecessor of the Imperial Japanese Army Academy in September 1875, he was assigned to the Hiroshima Garrison’s 12th Infantry Regiment as a battalion commander and was promoted to major in July 1876.

In 1877, Inoue fought in the Satsuma Rebellion[3] and was subsequently served on the staff of the Kumamoto Garrison, Nagoya Garrison and was promoted to lieutenant colonel and commander of the IJA 1st Infantry Regiment in May 1885.

From February 1894 he was sent for six months to Europe, returning in October 1894 to assume the post of chief-of-staff of the Japanese Second Army during the First Sino-Japanese War.

On his death in December of the same year, he was posthumously awarded the Grand Cordon of the Order of the Rising Sun, Gold Rays with Neck Ribbon.