A native of Kagoshima, Hishikari graduated from the 5th class of the Imperial Japanese Army Academy in 1894.

After the end of the war, he returned to the Army Staff College, graduating from the 16th class in 1902.

Following Operation Nekka (the invasion of Northern China), Hishikari was promoted in 1933 to be Commander in Chief of the Kwantung Army for the second time.

[2] He also commanded the continuing operations against the remaining Chinese guerilla forces in the newly established state of Manchukuo, to which Hishikari also held the position of Japanese ambassador.

[3] On 25 September 1933, the Soviet Union protested an alleged plot for Manchukuoan seizure of Chinese Eastern Railway accusing that it was a carefully worked out plan adopted in Harbin at a series of meetings of the Japanese military mission and the responsible Japanese administrators of Manchukuo.