As was common with sons of the kazoku aristocracy, he served for a session in the House of Peers in the Japanese Diet in 1910, while pursuing his military education.

From 1936-1937, he was superintendent of the Army War College, and on 2 August 1937, he was promoted to lieutenant general, commanding the IJA 8th Division.

[2] However, with the start of the Pacific War, Maeda was recalled to active service, and assigned command of the Borneo theatre of operations on 6 April 1942.

[3][4] Maeda later boarded a plane to Labuan that day to officiate an airport which bore his name.

The Japanese later set up a wooden pole memorial made up of Belian wood in Bintulu.

His daughter, Sakai Miiko (1926–1999), became a non-fiction author, writing several works on the kazoku and their tragic history in Shōwa period Japan.