After his return to Japan in 1868, Takahashi taught English conversation. He later became the first master of the "Kyōritsu Gakkō" high school in Tokyo, (currently Kaisei High School), and at the same time worked as a low-ranking bureaucrat in the Ministry of Education, and then in the Ministry of Agriculture and Commerce. He was appointed as the first chief of the Bureau of Patents, a department of the Ministry of Agriculture and Commerce, and helped organized the patent system in Japan. At one point, he resigned his government positions and went to Peru to start a silver mining enterprise, but failed.