A native of Aichi Prefecture, Kanda graduated from the 23rd class of the Imperial Japanese Army Academy in 1911 and was assigned to the Kwantung Army and based out of the South Manchurian Railway office in Harbin in his early career.

On his return to Japan, he served for a year as an instructor at the Army War College before being reassigned to serve as Chief of the 4th Section of the 2nd Bureau of the Imperial Japanese Army General Staff, where he was (despite his fluency in the Russian language) in charge of collecting and analyzing military intelligence reports from Europe and North America.

[1] With the outbreak of the Second Sino-Japanese War in 1937, he was assigned briefly to be commander of the IJA 45th Infantry Regiment, but soon returned to a staff position as Chief of the 1st Section (and later Chief of the 1st Bureau) of the powerful Inspectorate General of Military Training.

[2] In 1941, he was promoted to Lieutenant general and commander of the IJA 6th Division, which was initially assigned to China, and fought at the Third Battle of Changsha.

Kanda surrendered Japanese forces on Bougainville to Allied commanders on 8 September 1945.