From the Konoe family, head of the Five Regent Houses, he was a politician of the Meiji and Showa eras. Handsome and aristocratic in bearing, he enjoyed great popular appeal. In 1937 he became the 34th Prime Minister; when the Second Sino-Japanese War broke out he issued the statement "We will not deal with the Nationalist Government" (the Konoe Statement), himself closing off the possibility of peace negotiations. He put forward a "New Order in East Asia" concept but could not restrain the expansion of the front. In 1940 he organized the Second Konoe Cabinet, established the Imperial Rule Assistance Association and dismantled domestic political pluralism. He also concluded the Tripartite Pact with Germany and Italy, making Japan a member of the Axis. In 1941, after attempting Japanese-American negotiations without success, the Third Konoe Cabinet gave way to the Tojo Hideki Cabinet. After Japan's defeat, when the Allies announced he would be prosecuted as a war criminal, he took his own life by poisoning at his home on December 16, 1945. He died at 54. He is recorded in history as a tragic politician who served as prime minister during the most critical phase of Japan's road to war.

Behind an aristocratic exterior was a politician who lacked decisiveness and was prone to indecision. Riding the tide of his era on the back of popular appeal, he could not maintain a firm will and was continually swept along by military pressure. Despite intelligence and good intentions, he was unable to prevent historical tragedy.

The escalation of the Sino-Japanese War and the founding of the Imperial Rule Assistance Association continue to be debated by historians as political decisions that decisively committed Japan to war. His tragic life is spoken of as a symbol of Showa Japan's failure of intellectuals to resist totalitarian currents.