We have tactics to defeat the combined fleets of Great Britain and the U.S.";[6] "Implant in the mind of every man and every officer that Japan will be the inevitable victor in any international conflict.

[2] Asada wrote that Takahashi "virtually controlled the naval high command in this capacity",[13] Ian Gow argued that Prince Fushimi was an independent and capable leader in his own right.

[22] As the former commander of Combined Fleet, well known in Japan and abroad and not involved in actual combat, Takahashi regularly spoke to the public on military and political topics, before and after[23] the attack on Pearl Harbor.

In 1936, he spoke that "Japan's economic advantage must be directed southward, with either Formosa or the South Sea Islands as a foothold";[24] in November 1940 he presented the Navy's view of the Empire's plans: "It will be constructed in several stages.

[27] Allied war-time sources connected Takahashi Sankichi with the Black Dragon Society that allegedly infiltrated the United States and silenced political opposition in Japan.

In the beginning of December 1945, General Douglas MacArthur placed Takahashi on the list of 59 most wanted Japanese along with Prince Nashimoto Morimasa and admiral Soemu Toyoda.