History Characters / WorldOfWarshipsJapan

''Mogami'' was the lead ship of her class and an example of LoopholeAbuse incarnate. She and her sisters were built as "light cruisers" to fit the requirements of the Washington and London Naval Treaties, but their barbettes were fitted so that the original 155mm armament could be quickly swapped for 203mm guns. Early teething problems led to substantial rebuild program for all four cruisers, but they emerged as some of the best heavy cruisers of the IJN and probably among the best fielded during WWII. ''Mogami'' participated in the invasions of French Indochina, Malaya, and the Dutch East Indies, where she helped smash the tiny Allied fleet in the area at the Battle of Sunda Strait. She had a close call at the Battle of Midway; after colliding with her sister ship ''Mikuma'', the two cruisers were limping for Wake Island when they were attacked by American carrier aircraft. ''Mikuma'' was overwhelmed and sunk, and ''Mogami'' only got away after being pasted by six bombs. This ultimately saw her conversion into an aircraft cruiser; her after turrets were removed and her deck extended so that she could carry more reconnaissance planes. In this capacity, ''Mogami'' served until 1944, when she was sunk at the Battle of Surigao Strait.

''Nagato'' and her sister were the last two capital ships built by the IJN prior to the Washington Naval Treaty. They were also the first Japanese ships to carry 410mm guns. Both ships were extensively rebuilt and modernized in the 1930s, as with many of the IJN's ships. ''Nagato'' was Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto's flagship during the attack on Pearl Harbor and also sailed with the fleet to Midway, though she did not participate in the battle. ''Nagato'' didn't see action again until 1944, when she fought at the Philippine Sea and Leyte Gulf. She was damaged in the latter battle and returned to Japan. Due to lack of materials and fuel, she was left unrepaired and permanently moored in Yokosuka as an antiaircraft platform. Throughout 1945, she was heavily damaged in successive US bombing raids, though never actually sunk; indeed, she was the only Japanese battleship still afloat at the end of the war. Having no other use for her, the US Navy expended her as a target during the atom bomb testing at Bikini Atoll.

Tier VI Japanese Aircraft Carrier. ''Ryujo'' ("Prancing Dragon") was a light aircraft carrier with a flush-deck [[note]] lacks an island [[/note]] built in light of the infamous Washington Naval Treaty of 1922, in 1929. Designed to exploit a [[LoopholeAbuse loophole]] in the treaty requirements [[note]]namely by constructing a carrier below the 10 000 tonne limit imposed so it would not be recognized as an aircraft carrier; ''Ryujo'' weighed 8000 tonnes [[/note]], the carrier was only lightly built and virtually armor-less to keep her below 10 000 tonnes. [[note]]An ObviousRulePatch imposed by Article 3 of the London Naval Treaty later in 1930 (to close the aforementioned loophole) ensured that the Ryujo was the only ship of her class completed, as the carrier was under construction at the time (she would be completed a year later)[[/note]]. While initially built with a single hangar, the IJN later demanded a doubled plane capacity from 24 to 48, to support a more capable airgroup. This gave the Ryujo her double-hangars, [[PintsizedPowerhouse allowing her to carry a massive amount of aircraft for a carrier of such diminutive stature]] [[AwesomeButImpractical but made her top-heavy and destabilized her in bad weather]]. Because of this, she was docked for modifications to improve her stability. She participated in the UsefulNotes/SecondSinoJapaneseWar and during World War II was later used in combat operations in Southeast Asia and in April 1942 she was involved in raiding the Indian Ocean, attacking British merchant shipping with her guns and her aircraft. Ryujo was sunk during the Battle of the Eastern Solomons in October 1942, after aircraft from the ''USS Saratoga'' attacked her with TBF Avenger torpedo bombers carrying conventional bombs and SBD Dauntless dive-bombers.

* AwesomeButImpractical: Due to having the biggest guns in the game, unless your aim is ''dead-on'' (and RNGsus is nice), you're going to be scoring a lot of overpens in this thing (simply because most cruisers don't have enough armor to arm the fuse, period).
* {{BFG}}: As a Super-Yamato Class, it usurps the original as having the biggest guns in the game; 510mm/21 inch twins in 3 turrets, taking the ''Yamato'''s legendary penning up a notch.
* ThereIsNoKillLikeOverkill: 510mm (''20 inch'') guns never existed in real life, with the largest being the 460mm/50 caliber cannons ''Yamato'' was equipped with. Guns ''even bigger than that'' are just overkill.
** Had the A-150 "Super Yamato" design ever been built, the original proposal was indeed for 51 cm guns. ''9 of them''. They dialled it back when they crunched the numbers and found the ship necessary to yield such an insane arsenal was too big (~90,000 tonnes) and too expensive to fit the other requirements (such as a speed of 30 knots), and scaling back the design to fit the criteria necessitated only using double turrets.

Tier VIII Japanese Destroyer of the universal line. ''Akizuki''-class was built in 1940-1945 as a complement for the ''Kagerō''-class. Armed with new 100mm guns, they were formidable opponents for American aircrafts. Out of 12 completed vessels, six survived the war, mainly due to their extremely late completion and shortages of fuel preventing them from performing many missions. Two of these ships were scrapped, and four were given as war reparations to Allied nations, where they were too quickly decommissioned, with the last being [=ROC's=] ''Fen Yang'', scrapped in 1963.

Tier VII Japanese Cruiser of Light Cruisers line. This ship is based on Ōyodo, a specialized submarine squadron flagship, that was meant to provide submarines with reconnaissance with her carried aircrafts. In the game, she is instead finished as an escort ship for carriers, with two additional turrets and torpedo tubes in place of aircraft facilities.

Tier X Japanese Cruiser of Light Cruisers line. The hypothetical development of ''Tone's'' hull, combined with ''Taihō's'' power plant and six triple 150mm/60 Type 5 guns, this ship serves as the to of the Japanese Light Cruisers line.

Tier VI Premium Japanese Battleship. ''Mutsu'' is basically a down-tiered, World War 1-configured Nagato-class battleship. Quite unusually, she boasts two single tube torpedo launches on each side. With a reload of twenty seconds, these are the only torpedo tubes that reload faster than the ships guns.

* SpellMyNameWithAnS: Depending on resource, the name can be spelled as 'Zao' or 'Zaou', though the former is much more common, and as a result, is mispronounced perhaps more than any other ship name (most community contributors and content creators pronounce it 'zao' as a single syllable (which is, ironically, the correct pronunciation if it was a Chinese name, an alternate transliteration of 'Zhao'), but it should be pronounced with two syllables 'za-o' to reflect the reading of the two kanji in the Japanese written form).

[[folder:Japanese Battleships]]

* FragileSpeedster: Like Kongo, she trades armor for speed being a battlecruiser. She can reach 27 knots and has a pretty hefty broadside.

Tier VIII Japanese Battleship. A ''battlecruiser'' (quite unusual for Tier VIII, as most battlecruisers are in Tiers V-VII) that was nearly finished, then slated for conversion to an aircraft carrier with her sister ''Akagi'', until the 1923 Kanto earthquake damaged her so thoroughly that she was scrapped. ''Amagi'' is rendered as a theoretical fast battleship refit, retaining her speed, but wielding the same guns as ''Nagato'' with an extra one in the middle of the ship.

Tier IX Japanese Battleship. A draft design that utilized an all guns forward concept (similar to the Nelson-class), whose hull design became the baseline for the famous ''Yamato''-class.
* AttackItsWeakpoint: From Alpha to a few months after release, ''Izumo'' had a glitch where her forward citadel hit area extended beyond its citadel armor, which translated to there only being 32mm of armor protecting a portion of the citadel. This made ''Izumo'' extremely fragile, but it's mercifully since been patched.

Tier X Japanese Battleship. The largest and most powerful battleship ever constructed, the pinnacle of Japanese battleship construction is also named for the nation itself (''Yamato'' being a representation of the Japanese people). Wields nine monstrous 18in/460mm caliber guns, and can devastate anything it shoots at (due to the overmatch mechanic (the ability of a shell to penetrate through bow armor), the only things it can't obliterate from the front are ships with "icebreaker" bows, or having a waterline armor belt that covers the citadel). Despite her size and power, ''Yamato'' was obsolete from the moment of her launch, as she hit the water only a few days after Pearl Harbor had definitively illustrated the superiority of naval airpower over surface ships. She never once fired her mighty guns at an enemy battleship; in fact, the only time she ever engaged surface targets was at the Battle off Samar, where she wound up being chased off by a group of tiny, lightly armed escort ships (to put this into perspective, ''Yamato'' by herself outweighed ''every ship in the American task group'' put together). She was ultimately sunk by carrier aircraft during a doomed sortie to Okinawa in the final days of the war.

* SuddenGameplayChange: One of the main reasons for her TierInducedScrappy status was that she is the first Heavy Cruiser the players have access to. Those who are used to spamming HE shells at the opponents and the faster turning guns on the earlier tier will learn that it no longer works.

Tier VII Japanese Destroyer of the universal line

Tier VIII Japanese Destroyer of the universal line
* AntiAir: With the right setup, her AA rating can get into the low 70's, very strong for a destroyer. While she lacks the defensive fire of the Americans, she's still a legitimate threat to careless aircraft.

Tier IX Japanese Destroyer of the universal line. A super destroyer concept based on the Akizuki class and Shimakaze class. Essentially an Akizuki with more torpedoes in its one launcher and the ability to move much faster.

Tier X Japanese Destroyer of the universal line. Another concept based on Akizuki and Shimakaze. However, unlike the Kitakaze design, Harugumo prioritizes armament over speed.

[[folder:Japanese Cruisers]]
Japanese cruisers have good mobility and concealment, but poor armor and AA defense. Their guns tend to be slow to turn, but have decent velocity and arcs and a high fire chance with HE. Their torpedos have similar characteristics: the torps themselves are comparable with IJN destroyers (aka they're really good) but have difficult-to-use firing arcs, mostly being at the aft of the ship and can only be used when broadside or facing away from the target.

Tier V Japanese Cruiser

''Furutaka'' and her sister ship ''Kako'' were the first high-speed heavy cruisers of the IJN, designed to counter the ''Omaha'' and ''Hawkins''-class cruisers of the US and British navies. They received a series of overhauls in the 1930s that modernized and improved basically everything about their designs, and served ably during WWII. ''Furutaka'' participated in the invasions of Guam, Wake, the Bismarcks, and the Solomons, as well as the Battles of the Coral Sea, Savo Island, and Cape Esperance. She was sunk at Cape Esperance, joining the many other wrecks of "Iron Bottom Sound".

Tier VI Japanese Cruiser

''Aoba'' was the lead ship of her class of heavy cruiser. Originally meant to be part of the ''Furutaka'' class, design issues with those ships led ''Aoba'' and her sister ship ''Kinugasa'' to be split into their own class. Much like the other interwar-era ships of the IJN, she underwent a substantial overhaul in the 1930s that modernized her and prepared her for the upcoming war. Like ''Furutaka'', she fought at Guam, the Coral Sea, Savo Island, and Cape Esperance. In the latter battle, she was the victim of a misunderstanding by her admiral; believing that he was under friendly fire, he ordered a 180-degree turn that allowed the American fleet to cross his T. ''Aoba'' was smothered by an avalanche of shells and severely damaged. She spent the rest of the war ping-ponging around the Pacific while accumulating more damage that ultimately saw her written off as irreparable. She was permanently moored at Kure and used as an antiaircraft platform; successive US bombing raids left her sitting on the bottom of the harbor with her stern broken off. She was raised and scrapped in 1946-1947.

Tier VII Japanese Cruiser

Tier VIII Japanese Cruiser

Tier IX Japanese Cruiser

Tier X Japanese Cruiser

* NamesTheSame: When it was known as ''Yashima'', the name was considered to be quite easy to mix up with ''Yoshino'', a supercruiser. Thus, it was renamed to ''Shikishima'' instead.

* StealthExpert: As of the CV rework, a full concealment build, along with equipping the longer-range 8 km torpedoes, can allow her torpedo bombers to stealth-torp, to the point where a player can get two drops off from the maximum range without the planes being spotted, and have the planes from the third drop be visible for mere seconds before they too conduct their strike and return, giving their victims little to no warning, or even not make them aware that torpedoes are on the way. Thanks to a GoodBadBug discovered during the public testing of the rework and was carried over to the live server unpatched, this gets taken UpToEleven, as the live torpedoes '''will not appear as armed''' until after any torpedoes that fail to hit the target go past their target, yet those that hit will still do damage. This behavior means that the target will hear the torpedo alarm go off, but will not get a voiced warning nor visual directional indicator as to the incoming torps. Hydro-acoustic Search will also NOT pick up the torpedoes. Fortunately for everyone else a lot of the bugs have been patched.

* {{BFG}}: As a Super-Yamato Class, it usurps the original as having the biggest guns in the game; 510mm/21 inch twins in 3 turrets, taking the ''Yamato'''s legendary penning UpToEleven.

Tier VIII Japanese Aircraft Carrier. ''Shokaku'' ("Soaring Crane") was the lead ship of the two-ship Shokaku-class, built in 1939 and commissioned in 1941. She was one of the six aircraft carriers involved in the attack on Pearl Harbor. She fought in the Battle of the Coral Sea in May 1942, which saw her damaged too badly to participate at Midway the following month. After being repaired, she fought at the Battle of Santa Cruz in 1943 and the Battle of the Philippine Sea in 1944, which saw her torpedoed and sunk by USN submarine USS ''Cavalla''.

Tier X Japanese Aircraft Carrier. A modification of the "Taiho Kai"[[note]]essentially a bigger ''Taiho'' with more bells and whistles[[/note]] to take ''Taiho'''s design flaws into account. ''Hakuryu'''s design was the last purpose built aircraft carrier conceived for the IJN.

''Taiho'' ("Great Phoenix") was a super-advanced aircraft carrier of the IJN and the sole ship of her class, laid down in 1941 and commissioned in 1944. She was a departure from normal Japanese aircraft carrier design doctrine; she was the first Japanese carrier to feature an armored flight deck, and was given extra armor around her belt and magazines in order to enable her to not only survive multiple bomb, torpedo or shell hits, but also continue fighting effectively afterwards. Sadly, her first combat operation in the Philippine Sea turned out to be her last; during the battle, she was hit by a torpedo from the USS ''Albacore'' that cracked her forward avgas tanks, which began vaporising [[MadeOfExplodium and turning the ship into a timebomb]]. Poor damage control caused the DeadlyGas to spread to other parts of the ship, and several hours after the torpedo hit, Taiho blew up and settled in the water, clearly [[YouAreAlreadyDead doomed]]. Soon after the captain left, Taiho exploded again, and this explosion was enough to seal her fate and send her to the bottom of the sea, taking down with her 1650 men out of a complement of 2150.

The faction as a whole specializes in mounting the most devastating weapon possible. Be it battleships' guns or destroyers' torpedoes - Japanese weapon is just plain [[{{BFG}} bigger]]. Their cruisers are best suited for setting enemies on fire, but they also mount powerful torpedoes - famous Type 93 "Long Lance", just like destroyers. However, Japanese ships suffer from CripplingOverspecialization. Abysmal AA defence is typical for the entire tech tree, and they don't have any real tricks other than their powerful main armament.

Tier III Japanese Destroyer. A series of eight small "second-class" destroyers, ''Wakatake''-class was built in 1921-1925. Their small size limited their utility, and one of them even sunk in a storm. As such, they were used primarily in coastal waters of China. Out of seven ships all but one were lost in WWII, with the last one striking a mine in August 1945, and never being repaired.

Tier IV Japanese Destroyer. This series of four destroyers was built in 1916-1917, and served in Japanese Navy until 1935.

Tier V Japanese Destroyer of the torpedo line. ''Mutsuki''-class, heavily based on earlier ''Minekaze''-class, and sometimes considered its second series, was built in 1924-1927. Unlike all previous classes, they featured new 610mm torpedo tubes, thus enabling them to carry the famous "Long Lance" torpedoes. All twelve ships were lost in WWII.

Tier VI Japanese Destroyer of the torpedo line. A completely new class of destroyer, built in 1926-1931, it was the same for destroyers what HMS ''Dreagnought'' was for battleships. With new, dual-purpose guns in twin mounts and three triple torpedo launchers, they remained formidable opponents in the WWII despite their age. The first two series numbered ten units each, while the last is usually consider a separate class. Of these two series all but one ship were sunk.

Tier VII Japanese Destroyer of the torpedo line. The third series of aforementioned ''Fubuki''-class, built in 1930-1932, it featured new boilers, that allowed to remove one of them. Four ships were built, and one of them, ''Hibiki'', survived the war and was given to USSR, where she served as ''Verny'' until 1953.

Tier VIII Japanese Destroyer of the torpedo line. The second[[note]]after ''Asashio''-class[[/note]] series of Japanese destroyers to exceed 2000 tons of displacement, they were built in 1937-1941. Unlike ''Fubuki''-class, they had only two torpedo launchers, but each of them had an additional tube. Nineteen ships were built, of which one survived the war and served in ROCN until 1970.

Tier IX Japanese Destroyer of the torpedo line. An improved version of ''Kagero'', this class, built in 1940-1944, featured main battery with better AA capabilities. These ships were considered elite units, and were all lost during WWII.

Japanese Super-Destroyer of the torpedo line. A larger version of ''Shimakaze'', that posessess one more torpedo tube in each mount.
* MoreDakka: She has an alternative firing mode, that allows her to shoot three salvos with negligible reload, and then reload for a long time

Tier V Japanese Destroyer of the universal line. The first post-WWI series of first-class destroyers in Japan, they were built in 1918-1922. Unlike all previous classes, that were based solely on British designs, ''Minekaze''-class incorporated a number of innovations, based on German destroyers, recieved by Japan as reparations. Out of fifteen ships four survived WWII, but three of them were broken up in 1947-1948, and only one was given to China and served in ROCN until 1960.

Tier VI Japanese Destroyer of the universal line. ''Hatsuharu''-class, constructed in 1931-1935, was a smaller, but more modern version of ''Fubuki'' design. All six ships were lost in WWII.

Tier IX Japanese Destroyer of the universal line. A super destroyer concept based on the Akazuki class and Shimikaze class. Essentially an Akazuki with more torpedoes in its one launcher and the ability to move much faster.

Tier X Japanese Destroyer of the universal line. Another concept based on Akizuki and Shimikaze. However, unlike the Kitakaze design, Harugumo prioritizes armament over speed.

Japanese Tier 1 cruiser, available for free first time you log in to the game. A light patrol gunboat designed for coastal operations. This gunboat was well-armed for her dimensions, including AA artillery. She was not armored and had low speed. ''Hashidate'' was authorized as part of the Circle Three Plan of 1937, and was laid down at ''Osaka Ironworks'' on 20 February 1939. She was launched 10 months later, 23 December 1939, and commissioned into the Imperial Japanese Navy 30 June 1940.
She would serve most of her time as support for combat operations off of the coast of China, mainly in the 2nd China Expeditionary Fleet’s 15th Escort Group. At the start of Asia-Pacific War, ''Hashidate'' participated in "Operation C", the invasion of Hong Kong. Thereafter, she would remain based in the same city for most of the war. On 22 May 1944, ''Hashidate'' was sunk by the ''USS Picuda'' submarine in the South China Sea, while towing a crippled merchant passenger/cargo ship.

* MacrossMissileMassacre: The first Japanese cruiser with 2 sets triple torpedo tubes on each side
* UndergroundMonkey: This ship has a total of 6 reskins, the 4 ARP cruisers, and the 2 dragons.

Japanese Battleships can be considered the "sniper" amongst battleships, as they possess the biggest and longest range guns with decent accuracy, and decent mobility to get into position. However, this comes at the cost of their defenses, with weaker armor and AA defense despite a high health pool. They also have the worst concealment in the game.

!Kongo

* FragileSpeedster: Her armor is rather lacking for a battleship, and it is possible for her to get citadel penetration from cruisers, not to mention her matchmaking spread has heavy cruisers armed with 8in/203mm guns that can citadel a carelessly positioned Kongo. In exchange, she can reach speeds of 31 knots.

Tier VIII Japanese Battleship. A ''battlecruiser'' (quite unusual for Tier VIII, as most battlecruisers are in Tiers V-VII) that was nearly finished, then slated for conversion to an aircraft carrier with her sister Akagi, until the 1923 Kanto earthquake damaged her so thoroughly that she was scrapped. Amagi is rendered as a theoretical fast battleship refit, retaining her speed, but wielding the same guns as Nagato with an extra one in the middle of the ship.
* MidSeasonUpgrade: Essentially a faster Nagato with an extra gun turret.

Tier IX Japanese Battleship. A draft design that utilized an all guns forward concept (similar to the Nelson-class), who's hull design became the baseline for the famous ''Yamato''-class.
* AttackItsWeakpoint: From Alpha to a few months after release, Izumo had a glitch where her forward citadel hit area extended beyond its citadel armor, which translated to there only being 32mm of armor protecting a portion of the citadel. This made Izumo extremely fragile, but its mercifully since been patched.

Tier X Japanese Battleship. The largest and most powerful battleship ever constructed, the pinnacle of Japanese battleship construction is also named for the nation itself (''Yamato'' being a representation of the Japanese people). Wields nine monstrous 18in/460mm caliber guns, and can devastate anything it shoots at (due to the overmatch mechanic (the ability of a shell to penetrate through bow armor), the only things it can't obliterate from the front are ships with "icebreaker" bows, or having a waterline armor belt that covers the citadel).

* PointDefenseless: After the disastrous defeat at Midway in which the Japanese Navy realized there would be an increasing danger of air attacks, Yamato was refitted with a bristling array of 162 25mm AA autocannons. However, the autocannons were incredibly mediocre because they were a licensed-built copy of a French design which itself was vastly inferior to the 20mm Oerlikon.

Japanese carriers utilize more squads of fewer planes, with a focus on torpedo bombers. They are excellent at repeated strikes at ships, but are hurt much more if planes are shot down pre-strike and are hopeless 1v1 against American fighters. The ships themselves are stealthy and fast, allowing them to relocate as needed.

Tier VI Japanese Aircraft Carrier. ''Ryujo'' ("Prancing Dragon") was a light aircraft carrier with a flush-deck [[note]] lacks an island [[/note]] built in light of the infamous Washington Naval Treaty of 1922, in 1929. Designed to exploit a [[LoopholeAbuse loophole]] in the treaty requirements [[note]]namely by constructing a carrier below the 10 000 tonne limit imposed so it would not be recognized as an aircraft carrier; Ryujo weighed 8000 tonnes [[/note]], the carrier was only lightly built and virtually armor-less to keep her below 10 000 tonnes. [[note]]Sadly, an ObviousRulePatch that was imposed by Article 3 of the London Naval Treaty later in 1930 (to close the aformentioned loophole) ensured that the Ryujo was the only ship of her class completed, as the carrier was under construction at the time (she would be completed a year later)[[/note]]. While initially built with a single hangar, the IJN later demanded a doubled plane capacity from 24 to 48, to support a more capable airgroup. This gave the Ryujo her double-hangars, [[PintsizedPowerhouse allowing her to carry a massive amount of aircraft for a carrier of such diminutive stature]] [[AwesomeButImpractical but made her top-heavy and destabilized her in bad weather]]. Because of this, she was docked for modifications to improve her stability. She participated in the UsefulNotes/SecondSinoJapaneseWar and during World War II was later used in combat operations in Southeast Asia and in April 1942 she was involved in raiding the Indian Ocean, attacking British merchant shipping with her guns and her aircraft. Ryujo was sent to the bottom of the ocean after aircraft from the ''USS Saratoga'' attacked her with TBF Avenger torpedo bombers carrying conventional bombs and SBD Dauntless dive-bombers.

Tier VIII Japanese Aircraft Carrier. ''Shokaku'' ("Soaring Crane") was the lead ship of the two-ship Shokaku-class, built in 1939 and commissioned in 1941. She was one of the six aircraft carriers involved in the attack on Pearl Harbor, was involved in the Battle of the Coral Sea in 1942, the Battle of Santa Cruz in 1943, and the Battle of the Philippine Sea in 1944, which saw her torpedoed and sunk by USN submarine ''USS Cavalla''.

Tier X Japanese Aircraft Carrier. A modification of the "Taiho Kai"[[note]]essentially a bigger Taiho with more bells and whistles[[/note]] to take Taiho's design flaws into account. Hakuryu's design was the last purpose built aircraft carrier conceived for the IJN.

* BribingYourWayToVictory: An interesting example. She used to be nearly identical to the Minikaze, but when the IJN DD line was split and the Minekaze nerfed, her and her sister premiums were not nerfed. This left her with the old, very fast torpedoes. They also reload VERY quickly at just under 50 seconds. Strangely, indirect changes to equipment and captain skills have only resulted in her becoming STRONGER since she was removed from sale.

* BribingYourWayToVictory: She costs 2 ''million'' free experience. If you converted all the experience for doubloons, she would cost ''80,000'' doubloons. Downplayed, since a good player can accumulate enough free experience by playing enough, and even payers has to convert this experience from ''somewhere''.

* BribingYourWayToVictory: Is the lowest tier Cruiser to get a smoke screen, has decent torpedoes, and has the same good guns as the Katori but is much faster. Is generally a very strong ship, with her only real flaw being a citadel the entire height of the ship. It's probaly a good thing she's only available to Alpha testers.

Japanese promo premium Tier V cruiser. One of the Agano-class light cruisers – the new generation of ships designed to replace cruisers built in the 1920s. She was relatively small, quick, and sported powerful torpedo armament.
* CripplingOverspecialization: She has terrible armor even by light cruiser standards, and has only 6 152mm guns with mediocre reload. What she gets in return is 6 12 km torpedoes ,with a best possible 9.6km concealment, allowing for stealth torpedo attacks. However she gets ''terrible'' torpedo firing arcs, requiring to show a flat broadside to fire them. Worse, the small low tier maps she often finds her self on rarely have enough open space to actually make use of her maximum torpedo range.

Azuma is one of two ships in the game based on B-65 cruiser concept, a reply to to America's Alaska design.
* MasterOfNone: The biggest complaint about Azuma is that she combines the weaknesses of a battleship and cruiser with very few of the strengths. Her citadel is quite vulnerable and she has thin extremity plating like a cruiser but unlike previously introduced "large cruisers" Azuma does not get radar, and most choose between AA and Hydro making her weak against [=DDs=] and or aircraft carriers.

* GlassCannon: She 28 500 HP, comparable to some destroyers, and ''40'' 610mm torpedo tubes.
* {{Nerf}}: She was reassigned to Tier X without really changing anything about her, including abysmal HP pool.

Flagship of Togo Heihachiro during the ''UsefulNotes/RussoJapaneseWar''. She is the only tier 2 battleship in the game, as well as the only pre-dreadnought battleship in the game.

Tier IV Premium Japanese Battleship. It was once given out to all players for free as 2018 New Year gift.
One of the draft designs for a battlecruiser of the Imperial Japanese Navy that subsequently materialized as the Kongo class. The Ishizuchi (石鎚, named after Mount Ishizuchi) is based off of Vickers Design 472 which is the originally accepted design for the Kongo-class of battlecruisers. After the rejection of B-39, B-40, and B-41 designs, Sir George Thurston redesigned the draft in 1911 in order to create Design 472 (known to the Japanese as B-46). This design was accepted and was laid down on January 11, 1911 in Barrow-in-Furness, Britain. The original design called for ten 305mm/45 guns mounted in five twin turrets, however, after being urged by Commander Kato Hirohasu and witnessing gun trials, the Japanese Navy made the decision on November 29, 1911 to alter the design to fit eight of the new 360mm/45 gun in four double turrets. These alterations were completed successfully and the ship was launched on May 18, 1912, and was christened Kongo.
* FragileSpeedster: Like Kongo, she trades armor for speed being a battlecruiser. She can reach 27 knots and has a pretty hefty broadside.

* ThemeNaming: While this ship design turned into Kongo in real-life, the name "Ishizuchi" was given to the design by Wargaming in accordance with the Imperial Japanese tradition to name heavy cruisers (and by extension battlecruisers) after mountains.

Tier VI Premium Japanese Battleship. Mutsu is basically a down-tiered, World War 1-configured Nagato-class battleship. Quite unusually, she boasts two single tube torpedo launches on each side. With a reload of twenty seconds, these are the only torpedo tubes that reload faster than the ships guns.

* CursedWithAwesome: Her guns have crappy penetration for their caliber much like the British or the Ashitaka. However since Mutsu's guns are so big for their tier, it's capable of overmatching bow armor of ''all'' ships in her tier.
* LightningBruiser: Downplayed; her armor is rather obsolete compared to her peers, but is still more than enough to keep non-battleships at bay and still passable against other battleships. At her tier, she is only matched by Dunkerque in raw speed.

* PointDefenseless: Her AA would be considered bad on a tier 4 ship, nevermind tier 6.

* GlassCannon: She boasts ten sixteen inch guns, dethroning the Nelson as the the most firepower among battleships in seventh tier. However, thin armor and laughably bad AA means the Ashitaka cannot tank damage.

* ScunthorpeProblem: Her name is rendered A***aka on clients with the profanity filter running. See below.

Tier VIII Premium Japanese Battleship. A proper battleship design of the Amagi, named after Kii province in Ancient Japan. She in-game functions as an Amagi with reduced sigma (i.e worse accuracy), significantly better AA defense (unusual amongst IJN battleships), and torpedo tubes
* AntiAir: Her biggest difference over Amagi is her incredible AA defenses. In fact, the ''Kii'' is perhaps the only IJN battleship with decent AA (for tier)

* {{Irony}}: Kii uses the armor scheme she was built with, her modernization focusing AA guns and improving speed. Because of this, Kii is more of a battlecruiser compared to the in game Amagi, despite being designed as a BB.
* MasterOfNone: One of the biggest complaints about ''Kii'' is that her strengths and weaknesses clash horribly. Kii has torpedoes and (post buff) a workable secondary system combined with reduced sigma (I.e. worse accuracy ) suggesting that Kii should be a brawler. But poor horizontal protection prevents her from acting a brawler and she still has Japanese accuracy falloff and which means her guns will be generally outclassed at close range by dedicated brawlers. The fact that there are better "JackOfAllStats" premium tier 8 battleships doesn't help matters much.
* PointDefenseless: Noticeably inverted, as she is considered the only Japanese battleship with good AA defenses. Furthermore, she has torpedo tubes, and while her torpedoes do not pack the punishing punch of the Tirpitz, getting too close to Kii is often times a major mistake.

Tier IX Premium Japanese Battleship. The sister ship to the Yamato, in her pre-AA retrofit form. Previously available for Free XP, was pulled due to basically being Yamato at Tier IX (which meant an easier matchmaking spread than Yamato).
* AchillesHeel: Musashi is an unassailable fortress unless being assaulted by aircraft or having her flank exposed (making her vulnerable to citadels and torpedo strikes).

* {{BFG}}: Tied with ''Yamato'' for having the second biggest in the game thanks to being sister-ships of the same class, far eclipsing her peers at tier IX and even Tier X
* BribingYourWayToVictory: Being ''Yamato's'' sister-ship of the Yamato-Class, ''Musashi'' is effectively a Tier X ship with Tier IX matchmaking. Specifically she has ''Yamato's'' 18 inch main batteries, a Tier X Battleship's HitPoints, the same armor protection as ''Yamato'' including the best torpedo bulge armor in the game and the same speed and maneuverability. In return, Musashi only sacrifices are weaker AA and Secondary armament, and a slightly lower Sigma-value on her main battery[[note]]The hidden stat that calculates the average spread of shells within the dispersion circle of the gun[[/note]]. Like Missouri and Nelson, she is also locked behind a Free XP cost (750,000 Free XP, same as Missouri) and 1 credit cost, or about 170,000 Coal from the Arsenal. While this makes Musashi technically free, as both are Free in-game resources, the process can be sped up by players with sufficient premium Doubloons and excess Ship or Elite Commander XP, can convert those into Free XP.
* TheDreaded: You really don't want a Musashi on the enemy team.
** Became even ''more'' dreaded after a certain Yuro invented the 899 division (a tier 8 carrier, usually Graf Zeppelin due to her planes' speed, and two tier 9 battleships, preferably Musashis due to their range and improved spotters). Now, whenever a carrier sees a Musashi on the other team, it will cower in fear of being sniped from across the map in the first few minutes of the game.
* PointDefenseless: One of the differences between her and Yamato is that she loses almost half of Yamato's secondary array and a great deal of Yamato's already questionable AA.
* LightningBruiser: While the slowest in her tier she still moves pretty quick for despite having the most armor and hp.[[note]]She is is actually tankier than Yamato thanks to having a narrower superstructure thanks to her un-unpgraded AA and having an armored funnel[[/note]] Unlike Yamato, she will very frequently encounter battleships ''much'' slower than her like Nelson and Colorado.

* {{BFG}}: As a Super-Yamato Class, it usurps the original as having the biggest guns in the game; 510mm/21 inch twins in 3 turrets, taking the Yamato's legendary penning UpToEleven.
* NamesTheSame: When it was known as Yashima, the name was considered to be quite easy to mix up with Yoshino, a supercruiser. Thus, it was renamed to Shikishima instead.
* ThereIsNoKillLikeOverkill: 510mm (''20 inch'') guns never existed in real life, with the largest being the 460mm/50 caliber cannons ''Yamato'' was equipped with. Guns ''even bigger than that'' is just overkill.
** Had the A-150 Super Yamato design ever been built, the original proposal was indeed for 51 cm guns. ''9 of them''. They dialled it back when they crunched the numbers and found the ship necessary to yield such an insane arsenal was too big (~90,000 tonnes) and too expensive to fit the other requirements (such as a speed of 30 knots), and scaling back the design to fit the criteria necessitated only using double turrets.

Intended to be one of the two ''Tosa''-class battleships, ''Kaga'' (named after the ancient Kaga province of Japan) was selected mid-construction to replace the ''Amagi'' battlecruiser for conversion to aircraft carrier following the Washington Naval Treaty [[note]] The Great Kanto Earthquake damaged then-under-conversion Amagi so badly she was deemed beyond repair and scrapped, and since the ''Akagi'' was already underway for conversion, the Japanese needed one more converted-to-CV-battleship to comply the allowance of the treaty. ''Kaga'' was chosen for this task. [[/note]]. Kaga participated in the Shanghai incident in 1932, and a year later she was rebuilt to refine her exhaust system, adapt her flight deck to heavier modern aircraft, and increase her top speed. She saw plenty of action afterwards, including the Second Sino-Japanese war of the late 1930s, and was one of the six aircraft carriers involved in the attack on Pearl Harbor. Afterwards, she helped attack Rabaul, was involved in bombing Darwin in Australia, and helped the Japanese invasion of Dutch East Indies. She hit a reef in February 1942 and had to return for repairs and as a result missed the Indian Ocean Raid.
Kaga was crippled at the Battle of Midway after being hit by dive bombers from the ''USS Enterprise'', and was ultimately scuttled by the ''Kagero''-class destroyer ''Hagikaze''. Debris from her wreck were located 5200 meters below the water surface in 1999, 560km northwest of Midway Island.

** Update 0.7.11 removed all the much hated AP secondaries in the game. Now Kaga's 200m guns are far more effective, but still don't quite have the range or performance to make trying to utilize them effectively.

** The CV rework made CV secondaries much more accurate, though Kaga's aren't quite at the memetic levels of Graf Zeppelin's.
* {{Determinator}}: Kaga mounts very large squadrons and even counting that a proportionally very high number of planes on deck. Even without "cold dropping" [[note]]Dumping ordinance into the sea or islands to reduce squadron size and risk less planes.[[/note]] it can use anyone of its attack wings three times even if none planes make it back. ''With'' proper cold dropping she can constantly harass ships with the same type of plane the whole game. If you are a DD a competent Kaga player can simply fire rockets at you until the match ends or one of you dies.
* KillItWithFire: She utilizes high explosive dive bombers unlike other Japanese carriers after the rework. Her massive quantity of bombs dropped makes for some good fire starting.
* QualityVsQuantity: Falls firmly on the side of quantity. She can take more planes to the sky than any other tier 8 in massive squadrons but the trade off is they are all tier six planes.
* WeHaveReserves: She has a large number of reserve planes that there is little fear of running out of them. Something of a necessity since her fighter planes are of lower tier than that of the other carriers.
** She still invokes this after the CV rework. Kaga has an unusually deep well of aircraft in reserve, but slightly inferior planes. To put it perspective, non premium CVS can only make one full strength run and one two third strength run after if all planes are shot down. Kaga can attack three times with any type of aircraft back to even if there are no survivors in the previous run. It gets even more ridiculous if 'cold dropping' to reduce squadrons in size to avoid losses as is common around this tier. Kaga can make ''seven'' consecutive flights[[note]]Technically six but there is simply no way to kill them fast enough that a seventh isn't replenished.[[/note]] with her attackers if they are all half strength flights. This endurance can make experienced Kaga players a menace even when bottom tier as there is no way to get the carrier to stop pestering its targets short of sinking her.

''Hiryu'' ("Flying Dragon") was the sole carrier of her class built from a modified ''Soryu'' design, laid down in 1936 and completed three years later. She supported the invasion of French-held Vietnam (then Indochina) in 1940, and was one of the six aircraft carriers that attacked Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941 [[note]] one of her [=B5N=] torpedo bombers, carrying an 800kg bomb modified from a ''Nagato''-class battleship 410mm cannon shell, scored the fatal blow on the ''USS Arizona'', when a bomb pierced her deck and exploded in her magazine, splitting the unfortunate battleship in half and killing 1.177 crew, including Admiral Kidd, who was onboard the dreadnought that day [[/note]]. Afterwards, her aircraft saw action at the Battle of Wake Island (just one day after Pearl Harbor), the Japanese invasion of Dutch East Indies, the Indian Ocean Raid, and even bombed Darwin, Australia. After a brief refit, she was involved in the Battle of Midway, where despite surviving damage that took out the other three Japanese carriers in the battle [[note]] Kaga, Soryu and Akagi [[/note]], [[HonorBeforeReason her captain's decision to close range and press the attack instead of retreating to safety]] put the unfortunate carrier in range long enough for aircraft from ''USS Yorktown'' and ''USS Enterprise'' to locate and finish the job, sending the ''Hiryu'' along with many experienced Japanese ship crewmen and aviators to the seabed.

''Taiho'' ("Great Phoenix") was a super-advanced aircraft carrier of the IJN, the sole ship of her class, built by the Japanese in 1942 and commissioned in 1944. She was a departure from normal Japanese aircraft carrier design doctrine; she was the first Japanese carrier to feature an armored flight deck, and was saddled with enough protection in order to enable her to not only survive multiple bomb, torpedo or shell hits, but also continue fighting effectively afterwards. Sadly, her first combat operation in the Phillipine Sea turned out to be her last; after taking a torpedo hit from submarine ''USS Albacore'' that cracked her forward avgas tank, which began vaporising [[MadeOfExplodium and turning the ship into a timebomb]]. Poor damage control caused the DeadlyGas to spread to other parts of the ship, and several hours after the torpedo hit, Taiho blew up and settled in the water, clearly [[YouAreAlreadyDead doomed]]. Soon after the captain left, Taiho exploded again, and this explosion was enough to seal her fate and sent her to the bottom of the sea, taking down with her 1650 men out of a complement of 2150.

* LightningBruiser: Taiho sports an armored flight deck while being able to move a respectable 33.5 knots. She also has a rather deadly air wing.