 He enrolled in the School of Letters, Arts and Sciences II at Waseda University in 2000, and graduated in March 2004, re-entering as a politics and economics student in April 2004.He divorced from his wife in February 2006 and dropped out of Waseda in March 2006.On January 21, 2007, Higashi was elected governor of Miyazaki Prefecture, replacing former governor Tadahiro Ando, who resigned after being arrested for bid rigging.