Okabe was born in Kasuga-mura, Shinano Province (present-day Saku, Nagano) on September 30, 1864.

[6] Shortly after transferring to Honolulu, he returned to Japan to recruit more Japanese missionaries, including Takie Okumura and Shiro Sokabe.

[7] He also inherited the "Hawai Shinbun", a Japanese-language newspaper, from Jukichi Uchida in 1894, but quickly transferred it to Kenichiro Hoshida.

Once the riots were calmed, the royalists within the Japanese community didn't trust Okabe, and he left Hawaii in 1895.

After the war Okabe became the head of Yingkou's military government's diplomacy, resident affairs, and administrative divisions in quick succession.