After serving briefly on the Imperial Japanese Army General Staff, Kuno was assigned as aide-de-camp to Prince Fushimi Sadanaru from 1915-1917.

[1] After his return to Japan, Kuno served in a number of administrative and staff positions, including that of Secretary to Yamanashi Hanzō, the Governor-General of Korea in 1927.

Kuno became Chief of Staff of the Chosen Army in Korea from 1936–1938, and was thus involved in the dispatch of troops without orders from Tokyo in the Manchurian Incident in the early stages of the Second Sino-Japanese War.

Promoted to lieutenant general, from 1938–1940, Kuno commanded the IJA 18th Division, which saw considerable combat during the 1939-40 Winter Offensive.

[2] Recalled to Japan in 1940 after the unauthorized invasion of French Indochina, he was forced into retirement from active military service in 1941.