After the
surrender of Japan, Prince Takamatsu entertained many American officers at his residence during their
occupation of Japan. His role in the post-war years was largely ceremonial and he became the honorary president of various charitable, cultural and athletic organizations including the Japan Fine Arts Society, the Denmark-Japan Society, the France-Japan Society, the Tofu Society for the Welfare of Leprosy Patients, the Sericulture Association, the
Japan Basketball Association, and the Saise Welfare Society. He also served as a patron of the
Japanese Red Cross Society (present-day honorary president is
Empress Masako) and was a major contributor of the NBTHK (Nihon Bijutsu Token Hozon Kyokai or Society for the Preservation of the Japanese Sword). He also officiated the Honorary President of the Preparatory Committee for founding
International Christian University (ICU) located in
Mitaka, Tokyo. Known for his outgoing nature, Nobuhito was said to have "slipped away from his guards and walk freely" before the war and "frequently came without any escort to drinking places in
Ginza" after the war. In 1970, Prince Takamatsu became the first member of the imperial family to visit South Korea after
Japan's colonial rule over Korea ended in 1945. He garnered criticism in 1973 when it was announced that he would privately visit vessels of the
Maritime Self-Defense Force. The engagement was canceled due to the backlash. In 1975, the
Bungei Shunjū literary magazine published a long interview with Takamatsu in which he told of the warning he made to his brother Hirohito after the
Battle of Midway when he realized Japan's defeat was inevitable; "I said, we now have to think about how to end the war. I expressed this left and right". Prince Takamatsu died of
lung cancer on 3 February 1987, at the Japanese Red Cross Medical Center (
ja, located in
Shibuya, Tokyo). He had been diagnosed with the disease in July 1986. His remains were buried at Toshimagaoka Cemetery located in
Bunkyō, Tokyo. ==Diary==