Prince Kan'in attended the Gakushuin Peers' School and graduated from the 44th class of the Imperial Japanese Army Academy in 1924.

However, he was recalled to active duty and promoted to major general in 1945, when he was placed in command of the IJA 4th Armored Division and three independent infantry regiments assigned to combat the projected American landings on the beaches of Kujukurihama, Chiba Prefecture, outside of Tokyo.

With the abolition of the collateral branches of the Imperial family and other titles of nobility by the American occupation authorities on October 14, 1947, he became a commoner, and was purged from public life because of his former military career.

He was forced to sell his residence at Nagatachō in downtown Tokyo to pay for taxes, and moved to the Kan'in summer house in Odawara, Kanagawa.

Ex-Princess Naoko created a scandal by attributing the couple's lack of children to her husband's homosexuality in newspaper interviews held shortly after their divorce.