As Director of the Censorship Department within the Home Ministry from 1917 to 1918, he ordered that publication of articles in newspapers concerning the Rice Riots of 1918 be banned, as they appears to be inciting violence.

The following year, he returned to the Home Ministry as Director of the Reconstruction Bureau, which was in charge of urban planning and the rebuilding of Tokyo in the aftermath of the Great Kantō earthquake.

During his tenure, he sponsored election reform laws to lower the minimum voting age to twenty, and to enable were enacted on women’s suffrage and eligibility for seats on in the Diet.

The laws were passed in the Diet in December 1945, despite reservations by some members that this action would lend support to extremist (particularly leftist) elements.

[2] As a result of the election law reforms, Koreans and Taiwanese resident in Japan lost their rights to vote in Japanese elections, as Horikiri judged that they had lost their Japanese nationality with Japan’s acceptance of the Potsdam Declaration, and would thenceforth need to be treated as resident foreigners.