Editing Imperial Japanese Equipment (section)

== Small Arms ==
Japan's small arms were generally less advanced than that of other countries at the time; while most countries still relied on bolt-action rifles as their service weapon, many countries still produced decent quantities of SMGs as well as self-loading rifles in more limited numbers. Japan however focused primarily on bolt-action rifles, with fewer automatic weapons to back them up. Weapon quality also suffered later in the war as well. This was thanks to a focus on naval and airpower in regards to resources and manufacturing under the assumption it would be planes and ships that won the war in the Pacific, not soldiers. I mean, they weren't wrong...
=== Rifles and SMGs ===
[[Image:Arisaka.jpg|300px|thumb|Left|The Arisaka rifle, not to be confused with rifles made by [[Cyberpunk 2020|Arasaka]] ]]
* '''Type 30 Arisaka''': Japan's old rifle, designed by Arisaka Nariakira and put into service in 1899, it saw use in the Russo-Japanese War and the Great War. Fired a 6.5x50mm bullet. Generally a solid five-shot bolt action for it's day, if a bit underpowered. 
**As a side note, the 6.5x50mm Arisaka bullet was better suited for a man-portable automatic weapon than the typical over-charged full rifle rounds of the late 19th/early 20th century, which were made with accuracy and stopping power in mind. The Russian Fedorov Avtomat used them.
* '''Type 38 Arisaka''': Update on the Type-30. Used primarily in WWI, and partially replaced by the Type 99 in WWII. Had utterly shit sights and a weird safety.
* '''Type 97 Arisaka''': Type 38 rifle adapted for sniper use, usually with a 2.5x power scope. 6.5x50mm produces very little flash and smoke when coming out of a long barrel, making Japanese snipers difficult to spot.
* '''Type 99 Arisaka''': Built to replace the Type 30 and Type 38 by firing a 7.7x58mm cartridge. Improvements to the sights also made it the preferred rifle for snipers. That said, the Japanese still had a lot of Type 38s and 6.5x50mm, so it never fully replaced the Type 38. The sniper variant of the Type 99 was one of the more sensible snipers of the war, as the scope was mounted offset so that strip mags could still be inserted, resulting in a faster overall rate of fire. Also had a terrible trigger and the same shit sights from the Type 38.
* '''Type 4 Rifle''': It became apparent to the Japanese that many countries were now adopting semi-auto rifles, including the German G43, the Russian SVT40, but especially the American M1 Garand. Since they didn't have the time or resources to develop a brand-new rifle during the war, they basically reverse-engineered the Garand and built it to use the same 7.7mm stripper clips as the Type 99. A few hundred were made but were never deployed before the war ended.
* '''Pedersen Rifle''': This semi-automatic rifle had competed with the M1 Garand for adoption in the US Military; when it failed trials, a number had been sold to the Japanese government before the war. This gun uses the same toggle-action used on the luger pistol, making it more prone to mechanical failure. While the Japanese didn't have many of these rifles, they were used in the Battle of Okinawa. An attempt at copying it, the Type Ko, never left the prototype stage.
* '''SIG Bergmann Model 1920''': A common export SMG made under license that copied the Bergmann MP18, this updated version replaced the side-loading Luger snaildrum magazine with a straight magazine. The Japanese purchased the version in 7.63x25mm Mauser and used it as their primary SMG for the Sino-Japanese war.
* '''Type 100 Nambu''': The only production SMG made by the Japanese, and made in more limited numbers compared to other militaries. The Nambu SMG fired the same 8x22mm cartridge as the standard Nambu pistol. It had  sideloading magazine much like the earlier MP18 and contemporary Sten; while side-loading magazines had fallen out of favor by this time due to the unbalanced weight, it was a hell of  lot better than the other experimental Nambu SMGs that had been made at the time.
* '''Nambu Experimental Model 2''': One of the experimental SMGs developed before the war; it was initially rejected, but the urgency for more SMGs pushed the design into production. However, because it was being produced in Manchuria, the Chinese Communists took the design and used it during the Chinese Civil War, these being converted to use .45 ACP Thompson magazines.
* '''Murata Rifle''':  The OG of Japanese military rifles, first put into production back in 1880 and used during the Russo-Japanese war. Originally single shot, latter got a tube-mag upgrade. Only used on the home islands for the civilian reservists.
* '''Last Ditch Guns''': In the late war, Japanese manufacturing had been effectively crippled and resources were in short supply, so these so-called "Last Ditch Rifles" were made to arm what military forces remained, as well as civilians for the upcoming invasion of the Japanese home islands. These ranged from simplified versions of the Type 99 to very crude single-shot musket-things to give to civvies. Most of the stereotypical garbage that would explode at the slightest touch issues occurred here. While they didn't issue guns that would actually explode (that dishonor would go to the poor abused things Kijiro Nambu's pistols were reduced to by the late war) much more than normal, quality control rapidly went down the drain and reliability issues really did go up a lot. Most likely they jest wouldn't fire or get jammed far earlier than early war guns.

=== Pistols ===
* '''Type 26 Revolver''': A simple break-action hammerless revolver, chambered in 9mm Japanese revolver. Was invented back in 1893 but was still used in WWII to supplement weapon stockpiles.
* '''Nambu Type 14''': The standard sidearm of the IJA following WWI, replacing the Type 26. Chambered in 8x22mm, it wasn't as strong as contemporary pistols, but was solidly built, and later became the inspiration for the Ruger .22 pistol. A common misconception is that the Type 14 was dangerous to shoot, which is only half true. It won't explode, but it will sometimes go off when clearing a jam(more on that below). Another is that the Nambu was a cheaper knockoff of the Luger, which is untrue. The Type 14 is a series of improvements of an earlier weapon commonly called "Grandpa Nambu", a firearm which appeared in production at roughly a similar time to the Luger. While not objectively terrible, it was nothing compared to the Italian Berreta or Browning's 1911. It frequently jammed as well due to the springs not being able to keep up with the bolt, and was compounded by the bullets being angled up. The magazine release is also difficult to clear without adjusting your grip. However to the weapon's credit it had a very light trigger pull and had a trigger guard designed to allow troops wearing gloves to use them without removing said gloves. 
* '''Nambu Type 94''': A smaller, lighter-weight pistol compared to the Type 14. It was called the "Surrender Pistol" because it had an exposed sear, meaning that pressing down on the sear could fire the gun without pulling the trigger, so supposedly a Japanese soldier could fake surrendering so that they could shoot their captors up close. While this may have happened on occasion, stories of surrendering troops regularly firing using the sear are probably unsubstantiated, as it takes a considerable amount of force to squeeze the sear hard enough to fire the pistol. The Type 94 was used primarily by officers, army airmen, tankers, and paratroopers due to the lighter weight. If the safety was not on, the exposed seer could lead to accidental discharge if it was bashed into something and occasionally they blew up in people's hands when fired.
* '''Hamada Type Pistol''': a Browning-style pistol that was developed after Japan could no longer import foreign pistols. While cheaper and more reliable than the Nambu pistol, it arrived late into the war. The Type 1 was chambered in .32 ACP, and the Type 2 was chambered in 8x22mm.

=== Machine Guns ===
[[Image:Japanese Type 11 LMG.jpg|300px|thumb|right|The lengths some people will go for cross-compatibility]]
Not that most of Japan's heavy machine guns were the old school static rifle caliber HMGs, not the big bullet guns like the M2 or the Dushka.
* '''Type 11 Light Machine gun''': Put into service in 1922, this gun is ''weird''. It's like the gun equivalent of putting a USB port on an iPhone so you can use the same flash drive in it and your laptop. Basic idea, make a machine gun that could use the 5 round stripper clips used by Arisaka Rifles. That means you don't have to make special magazines for it or ship them to the front, while regular infantry dudes can supply it with bullets in a pinch. So it has this weird hopper magazine that takes up to 6 clips. This also meant putting the stock off to the side for balance. While it worked, it was heavy, awkward and not terribly reliable, especially in the dirty jungles where the open hopper was vulnerable to dirt getting in. The Soviets captured a few and actually made a few prototypes with a copied mechanism before realizing that it was more hassle than it was worth.
* '''Type 96 Light Machinegun''': to address the problems with the Type 11, the Japanese replaced it with a different model that used a top-loading magazine, based on the Czech ZB VZ 26 (which also inspired the Bren Gun).
* '''Type 97 Light Machine Gun''': Another machinegun based on the VZ 26, but more heavily built as it was intended for mounting on tanks. Rarely deployed as an infantry machinegun due to the extra weight, it featured an integrated scope and heavy barrel jacket to give it a distinctive appearance.
* '''Type 99 Light Machine Gun''': Visually similar to the Type 96 but chambered in the same 7.7x58mm ammo as the Type 99 Arisaka. Other than that, it and the Type 96 [[Imperial Guard|were one of the few LMGs with a bayonet mount.]]
* '''Type 3 Heavy Machinegun''': Static machinegun mounted on a tripod. Based loosely on the Hotchkiss machinegun in that its barrel has large cooling rings and feeds from 30 round feed strips. Chambered in 6.5mm. Just like the original Hotchkiss gun, the feed strips may be faster to load than an ammo belt and are reuseable, but any dirt or warping in the strips makes them unusable.
* '''Type 92 Heavy Machinegun''': overall shares the same layout as the Type 3, but chambered in 7.7mm.

=== Anti-Tank Infantry Weapons ===
* '''Type 4 70 mm AT rocket launcher''': Introduced in 1944 as an answer to the American Bazooka. Fairly basic but still a reusable item, a rocket was slotted into the front and set up by a simple percussion lock. A few thousand of these were made before the war ended and they saw only limited use. Never the less the PLA copied them for their first generation of RPGs.
* '''Lunge Mine''': Somehow the Japanese figured out a way to banzai charge tanks of all things. Little more than a shape charge attached to a pole, the idea was that a soldier would wait in ambush for an enemy tank to get close enough; the attacker would then charge at the tank’s side armor and strike it with the lunge mine to set it off; of course, at that range the explosion would more than likely kill or maim the user, if they weren’t already killed from trying to charge a friggin tank.
* '''Type 97 Automatic Cannon''': The Japanese version of the AT-rifle concept. Hilarious because they considered it a cannon and less of an AT-Rifle. [[Awesome|Shot 20mm ammo]]. So did the Finnish AT-rifles, but it is more hilarious because Japan also built Yamato(more on that below). What was unique is that they ended up getting used on some Japanese aircraft as a form of cannon. Overall not a terrible weapon, but quickly became outdated and was abandoned after 1200 total units due to the sheer complexity, but it certainly puts a massive dent in the "Japan just built shitty stuff" myth.

=== Misc ===
* '''Type 89 and Type 10 Grenade dischargers, aka "Knee Mortars"''': A nifty little Japanese design, these are basically miniature man-portable mortars. Lightweight (around 5 kg) and nominally requiring only a single soldier to use , they were capable of chucking a hand grenade up to 200 meters away, which came in pretty handy in the often close and cramped firefights in the jungle. As an amusing sidenote, the name 'Knee Mortar' comes from a mistranslation of a Japanese manual on how to use the thing: American soldiers first believed they were supposed to be braced against one's leg due to the curved butt-plate (which in reality is to make it easier to rest against tree roots or rough ground). While the error was quickly discovered (it was obvious from the recoil that bracing it on your leg would break your femur at best), the name stuck.
* '''Guntō''': Bargain Basement knock-off katanas. It was a regulation that all IJA officers were required to carry a sword and to that end a large number of these swords were made. Since Japan was raising a fuck-huge army under the militarists, they dispensed with the old arts of Sword Production and instead produced lots of blades quickly with modern milling/grinding/quenching techniques. For this reason, such 'modern' blades aren't considered traditional swords in Japan and they can be confiscated by the government for recycling. Real traditional katanas were a very rare sight on the battlefields of WWII, for even those officers that came from an old samurai family and possessed a genuine one often left the priceless family heirloom at home and carried a fancied-up Guntō (that would do the job in a pinch anyway) in battle. A lot of the surviving ones today are trophies collected by US Army soldiers and Marines ([[lulz|and often misidentified for genuine katanas by the uninformed]]). 
* '''Bayonets''': The IJA stuck bayonets on ''everything''. Not just rifles, but also their LMGs and SMGs. Bayonet charge had fallen out of favor with everyone else, and bayonets were only a last ditch weapon for everyone else, but bayonet fighting was still a mainstay of the IJA and had some success on the Chinese front. Against the Americans, however, who possessed significantly more automatic weapons and Garands, it had been rendered a useless tactic. They did gain some amount of utility when used in conjunction with night attacks, but as the war went on the number of seasoned troops who could pull this off had been drowned, killed in dumbass final charges to redeem their honor, or killed in any other ways the Pacific and Asia had to offer, including but not limited to Malaria, Malnutrition, Naval bombardment, Aerial Bombardment, Flamethrowers, Flamethrowers in Tanks, Indian Crocodiles, Angry Gurkhas and even Angrier Aussies.