Takeo Imai (23 February 1898 - 12 June 1982) was a Japanese Major General of the China Expeditionary Army[1] who was born in the Nagano Prefecture.

He served as a Vice-Chief of the General Staff of the China Expeditionary Army, as well as worked for the Japanese embassy in Beiping following the Marco Polo Bridge Incident.

According to historians, Imai was best known for taking a peaceful and mediating stance in Japan and China's conflictual relations in the late 1930s into the mid-1940s.

He kept influential posts, from belonging to the Toyoma Infantry 69th Regiment as the position of Army Captain and Japan's invasion of China until its signing of the Surrender Instrument in August 1945.

In December 1935, Imai was based at the Japanese Embassy in Beijing, and his first major undertaking was the Marco Polo Bridge Incident, in which he played a key role in peace negotiations.

Due to this, China hoped that Japan was coming to the end of their invasions, but six negotiations between the two states followed without an overall consensus.

Imai was sent to Nanking, China, in an attempt to reach a peace agreement with the Chinese Nationalist government.

In August 1945, (Showa 20), after the Japanese government accepted the Potsdam Declaration of the Allied Forces, under the direction of the commander of the China Expeditionary Army, Yasuji Okamura, Hunan was designated by the Chinese side for preliminary negotiations at the end of the war on August 21.

Major General Imai is one of the representatives of the Army, “Chiang Kei-Shek”, and is known for Wang Jingwei and direct peace work with the Chongqing National Government.

His position at the time was as Vice-Chief of the China Expeditionary Army; working in external affairs and postwar processing as a representative of Japan.