History Characters / WorldOfWarshipsJapan

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. All twelve ships were lost in WWII.

Tier V Japanese Destroyer of the universal line

Tier VI Japanese Destroyer of the universal line

Tier VIII Japanese Destroyer of the torpedo line

Tier IX Japanese Destroyer of the torpedo line

Tier II Japanese Destroyer

Tier III Japanese Destroyer

Tier IV Japanese Destroyer

Tier V Japanese Destroyer of the torpedo line

Tier VI Japanese Destroyer of the torpedo line

Tier VII Japanese Destroyer of the torpedo line

Tier X Japanese Destroyer of the torpedo line.

Tier X Japanese Destroyer of the torpedo line

!Ashitaka
Ashitaka is essentially the now removed A hull of Amagi down-tiered to tier seven.
* 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.
* PointDefenseless: AA is almost nonexistent for her tier and she absolutely must be escorted by cruisers for AA protection.
* ScunthorpeProblem: Her name is rendered A***aka on clients with the profanity filter running. See below.

* DifficultButAwesome: Her awkward turret placement makes her this. All of her firepower is in the bow of the ship, making her perfect for bow on tanking... if it weren't for the fact that only the middle turret is superfiring. The 3rd turret requires the ship be turned almost sideways to use it, exposing your broadside to the enemy.

[[folder:Japanese Destroyers - Torpedoes]]

[[folder:Japanese Destroyers - Artillery]]

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 enemyies on fire, but they, like destroyers, mount powerful torpedoes - famous Type 93 "Long Lance". 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.

Warships attributed to the [[UsefulNotes/KatanasOfTheRisingSun Imperial Japanese Navy]] in ''[[VideoGame/WorldOfWarships World of Warships]]''.

The Imperial Japanese Navy (大日本帝国海軍 Dai-Nippon Teikoku Kaigun or 日本海軍 Nippon Kaigun for short) is one of the first two factions to be introduced on the game's creation and release. Japan was, for much of the 20th Century, ''the'' only nation in Asia rich enough to afford building capital ships, unlike many Asian nations already featured in the Pan-Asian line who preferred economical, versatile small boats (no larger than cruisers).

All four main lines of the Japanese tree were avilable from the launch of the game. In December 2016 alternative line of Destroyers was released. In August 2018 this line was finally extended to the Xth Tier.

* AlternateHistory: In [=WoWS=]' timeline Ibuki was never converted to a carrier, as it was in real life.

[[folder:Japanese Destroyers]]

The line branches into a mini-line of more well-rounded destroyers at tier 5. While these boats are still armed with great torpedoes (albeit less of them), their guns have somewhat improved turn time and reload.

!Minekaze
Tier V Japanese Destroyer of the universal line
* {{Nerf}}: Got heavily nerfed during the IJN DD rework, and is now a shadow of her former self.

!Hatsuharu
Tier VI Japanese Destroyer of the universal line

!Shiratsuyu
Tier VII Japanese Destroyer of the universal line
* MacrossMissileMassacre: She gets the Torpedo Reload consumable, and unlike other IJN destroyers does not have to give up smoke for it. This allows her to pump out 2 walls of 8 torpedoes within 5 seconds of each other. This was nerfed so that she now has to chose between smoke and the reload booster.

!Akizuki
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.
* DeathByAThousandCuts: her low caliber guns lack punch and fire chance compared to other nations, but she gets 8 of them, and they have a base reload of 3 seconds! With captain skills, this can easily go into low 2 second territory.
* MightyGlacier: She's one of the slowest destroyers but carries firepower closer to that of a light cruiser.
* MilitaryMashupMachine: Has the speed, size, and turning circle of a light cruiser. Only the smaller caliber guns prevent her from completing the light cruiser package.
* MoreDakka: Carries 8 100mm guns. She can dogfight with a Gearing and make a good fight of it.

!Kitakaze
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.
* MacrossMissileMassacre: It sports a hextuple torpedo launcher and has a torpedo reload booster allowing it to fire twelve torps in a short time.
* MasterOfAll: Kitakaze has absolutely murderous guns backed up by a strong (if quirky and long loading) torpedo system, a very heavy hp pool and a decent speed. Her weaknesses are her lack of defensive fire and poor turning characteristics, but that's only situational weakness.
** She did get a minor nerf to her concealment, but this barely changed anything.
* LightningBruiser: Withering guns and torps backed up by 20k hp and up to 40knts of speed. Shes one the few [=DDs=] that qualify.

!Harugumo
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.
* AchillesHeel: Harugumo does not like like torpedoes being sent her way. At all. She is already very large and clumsy for a DD, but her tendency to sit in smoke combined with her lack of hydroacoustic search means that by the time you spot torpedoes, it is already too late to dodge.
* MilitaryMashupMachine: She's a "cruiser-type destroyer", essentially a ship the size of a small light cruiser that prioritizes speed over armament and uses DD caliber guns.
* MightyGlacier: The first DD in the game to qualify. She has higher HE DPM than a Cleveland and is functionally more durable than one thanks to being smaller and lacking a citadel while sporting almost as many hit points. She's not much faster than one though, with a base speed of only 36 knts and having very poor acceleration and dreadful turning.
* MoreDakka: Harugumo has ten rapid fire guns, more than any other DD in the game.

[[folder:Japanese Premium Ships]]

!Tachibana

!Tachibana Lima
* PaletteSwap: Of the Tachibana

!Fūjin
* PaletteSwap: Of the Kamikaze
!Kamikaze/Kamikaze R
* 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.
* StealthExpert: With the right setup she only gets spotted at only 5.4km!
!Mutsuki

!Shinonome
* BraggingRightsReward: While not useless unlike most examples of the trope, it's only available as a reward ship for completing a long chain of missions at tier 8-10, at which point you probably already have better premium ship trainers. Its also generally inferior to the Kamikaze trio if you're lucky enough to own one of those ships.

* {{Irony}} Despite being in the torpedo boat line, Akatsuki has more guns than her gunboat counterpart the Shiratsuyu. The Shiratsuyu in turn has access to the torpedo booster consumable and is thus often considered the better torpedo boat of the two.

!Kagero
* MasterOfNone: She's a pretty uninspiring torpedo spammer that has to choose between smokescreens or torpedo reload booster. In all other aspects she's largely been eclipsed by other destroyers that do her role better.
!Asashio
* CripplingOverSpecialization: She mounts deepwater torpedoes that have incredible damage, range, speed and flooding chance, [[StealthExpert low detectability on both the ship and said torpedoes]], and can ''carry a torpedo reload booster along with a smokescreen'', but the torpedoes can only hit battleships and aircraft carriers. Combined with poor gun and AA performance, she functionally is a dedicated battleship hunter.
* MacrossMissileMassacre: She has insanely long range torpedoes and comes with a torpedo reload booster.

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.

Another concept based on Akizuki and Shimikaze. However, unlike the Kitakaze design, Harugumo prioritizes armament over speed.

!Hayate
Japanese Tier X destroyer.

A destroyer design that was equipped with dual-purpose 127 mm Type 1/5 guns designed for the needs of the Japanese Navy during World War II.
* BribingYourWayToVictory: She costs 2 ''million'' free experience. If you converted all the experience for doubloons, she would cost ''80,000'' doubloons.
* JackOfAllStats: She is a midpoint between Shimakaze and Hayate, having less torpedoes than Shima, but bigger guns than the Hayate.

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.

!Katori
* AntiAir: While her actual AA guns are a joke, she's the lowest tier ship to get access to the Catapult Fighter consumable.
* JokeCharacter: She's as slow as the South Carolina (a ''battleship'', and a first-generation dreadnought at that), has armor that would make a destroyer blush, and only has 4 main battery guns.
** LethalJokeCharacter: However, she also has the longest range of any tier 3 cruiser, and gets access to Main Armaments Mod 0, which reduces dispersion by 40%, turning her into a lethal sniper.
* StarterEquipment: Prior to the ''Hashidate'''s introduction, she served as the starter ship for the [=IJN=]. She's since been re-introduced as a Tier 3 premium with her full armament.
!Yuubari
* AntiAir: The lowest tier cruiser with the Defensive Fire consumable.
* PointDefenseless: However, after the CV rework where all Defensive fire was nerfed, she became much weaker against aircraft.

!Iwaki Alpha
* 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.
* MilitaryMashupMachine: Combines the best aspects of Destroyers and Light cruisers.

!Yahagi
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.
* LethalJokeCharacter: While she suffers in many respects, her torpedoes do a massive amount of damage for a tier 5 ship, so if you do land hits with them your enemies will take heavy damage, if not outright be sunk.
* MilitaryMashupMachine: She's a light cruiser that plays more like a destroyer due to her engine boost and extremely long range torpedoes.

!Kitakami
* MacrossMissileMassacre: With that amount of torpedo tubes, this is pretty much her purpose.

!Atago
* HealThyself: Is flat out better than its tech tree counterpart, due to getting Repair Party. With the exception of the British light cruiser line, which gets them starting from Tier 3, the tier 7 Italian premium ''Duca degli Abruzzi'' and the German premium cruisers ''Admiral Graf Spee'' and ''Prinz Eugen'', this consumable isn't available on any other cruiser below tier '''9'''.
* HiddenWeapons: Unlike the other Japanese cruisers, her four quad torpedo tubes are located amidships rather than in the rear, and two of them are forward facing. This can be a big surprise to the opponent while brawling at close range and can be easy to forget since she otherwise looks very similar to the other Japanese cruisers (save for her unique paint which the player can opt not to use), in particular the Myoko.
* NecessaryDrawback: She has lower rate of fire for the main guns, despite essentially using the same guns as the other Japanese heavy cruisers. In addition, her turret placement still resembles Myoko's rather than Mogami's which makes her No 3 turret sometimes hard to fire.
* StealthExpert: With the proper fit, she has a detection range of 9km. This is fantastic for a cruiser, and gives her a 1km stealth torpedo window.

* ArtisticLicenseHistory: Despite the in-game description, the Ibuki was actually built in World War II (i.e not a paper ship). She was converted to a light carrier midway throughout the war, but work was never finished due to the war ending, so she was scrapped on the slipway.
!Azuma
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.

* ArtisticLicenseHistory: The in-game rendering of the Type 1941 Heavy Cruiser design, as it was officially referred to by the [=IJN=] did not exist either in reality or ''actual'' paper (This distinction is important, you'll know why in a bit). The only evidence that the [=IJN=] were even considering a new [=CA=] design is from what little documentation survived the war. Specifically, all we know about this design are the various requirements for it, and whatever actual blueprints existed for it have presumably been lost/destroyed. So where's the source of the in-game 3D rendering? It's a modification of a [[https://media.discordapp.net/attachments/206523770419150848/428540715354816522/Zao_01.png fan-made blueprint]] drawn up by a magazine writer attempting to take a shot at designing this "what-if" cruiser based on the known requirements, and it explains why the ''Zao'' is so different compared to all the heavy cruiser classes in the tech tree before. So this is a paper ship.......just on modern fan-made paper.

!Mikasa
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.
* CloseRangeCombatant: With her inaccurate main battery guns and good secondaries, she relies on getting up close and personal to deal damage. This would normally not be a problem, but [[MightyGlacier she is really slow]].
* DamageSpongeBoss: Has as much HP as an upgraded South Carolina- a tier 3 ''battleship''.
* PointDefenseless: Inverted. Her secondaries are arguably better than her inaccurate main battery guns.

!Ishizuchi
Japanese premium Tier 4 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.
* KillItWithFire: The lackluster AP performance leads some people to use this ship as an HE firestarter, which works surprisingly well for a battleship. her faster reloads and good fire chance can burn down opponents quickly. HE at this tier is also effective against cruisers, and most of them have such low armor that HE will do penetration damage to them anyway.
* 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.

!Mutsu
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.
* {{BFG}}: The only ship to mount 16 inch guns at her tier. Notably even when bottom tier, no one supersedes the caliber of her 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.
* MacrossMissileMassacre: In a bizarre way. She only boasts two torpedo launchers to a side but they reload extremely quickly which can easily surprise people. In fact she can put fish in the water faster that most destroyers of her tier. The effectiveness of this is limited by her pathetic arc though.
* PointDefenseless: Her AA would be considered bad on a tier 4 ship, nevermind tier 6.

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.

!Kii
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)
* GlassCannon: Not as bad ''Ashitaka'' but she is vulnerable to citadel hits because she loses some of ''Amagi'''s vertical citadel armor. Oddly, ''Kii'' was purpose built as a battleship.
* {{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.

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.

!Musashi
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).
* BattleStar: Bizarrely, she has a unique buff to the reload of catapult aircraft and a 100% buff to duration of catapult fighters. If direction center for catapult aircraft is taken, her fighters actually make up a significant amount of her AA defense, making her as close to this trope as is seen in this game.
* {{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.

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).

!Shikishima (formerly Yashima)
A theoretical "super" Yamato, wielding six massive [[ThereIsNoKillLikeOverkill ''510mm/45 caliber'' guns.]]
* 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 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.

Japanese tier 4 aircraft carrier, and the first aircraft carrier in the Japanese line of aircraft carriers.\\

The first purpose-built aircraft carrier to be commissioned in the world, ''Hosho'' ("Flying Phoenix")was completed in 1922 and commissioned in the same year, although she did not begin fielding aircraft until 1923 due to being commissioned lacking most of her aviation equipment. The ship provided valuable lessons and experience on carrier-borne aviation and carrier operations to the Japanese, and was involved in the opening stages of the [[UsefulNotes/SecondSinoJapaneseWar second Japanese incursion into China]], where her airgroups provided support to the IJA on the ground and dueled Chinese aircraft in the skies. Her small size and her limited airgroup made her ill-suited for frontline operations, and so ''Hosho'' was designated as a training carrier in 1939. She even participated in the disastrous Battle of Midway in a secondary role, and one of her aircraft even took a photograph of the burning, sinking ''Hiryu''. Afterwards, she continued service as a training ship for Japanese naval aviator recruits until the surrender of Japan, where she briefly saw service as repatriation transport before being scrapped in 1946.

!Zuiho
Japanese tier 5 carrier.\\

''Zuiho'' ("Fortunate Phoenix") was a light aircraft carrier originally laid down and built in 1935 as the submarine tender ''Takasaki'' in, but her construction was stopped midway and she was converted into an aicraft carrier- ''Zuiho''- in 1936. She was commisioned in 1940, and played a major role in the Japanese campaign on Gualdalcanal in 1942, participating in the Battle of the Santa Cruz Islands (in which she took major damage) and even covering the Japanese evacuation in 1943, after being repaired. Zuiho served as a ferry carrier and training ship in between combat operations, her aircraft disembarking several times to Japanese land-based airfields in the Southwest Pacific for use there. ''Zuiho'' finally met her end in 1944 during the Battle of the Leyte Gulf, when aircraft from the American carrier ''USS Independence'' hit her with bombs and torpedoes.

* PutOnABus: Removed following the 8.0 CV rework, with no plans to return.

Japanese tier 6 carrier, and the last of the light carriers in the Japanese tree.\\

''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.
!Hiryu
Japanese tier 7 carrier, and has a unique appearance with her port-side island instead of the more common starboard-side island. The first of the fleet carriers in the Japanese tech tree.\\

''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.

* PutOnABus: Removed following the 8.0 CV rework, with no plans to return.
!Kaga
Japanese tier 8 (formerly tier 7) premium carrier and one of only six premium aircraft carriers in the game (the others being the ''USS Saipan'', the (now removed from sale) ''USS Enterprise'', the ''HMS Ark Royal'', the ''HMS Indomitable'', and the ''KMS Graf Zeppelin'').\\

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.

In the game, Kaga is characterized by having large squadrons of weak planes, due to her planes being tier VI instead of VII. Unlike other Japanese carriers, her dive bombers drop high explosive bombs instead of armor piercing.
* TheBattlestar: Heavily [[DownplayedTrope downplayed]] despite ''Kaga'' in real life being a prominent example. ''Kaga'' boasts an impressive array of 200mm guns [[note]]a hair shy of the 8inch (203mm) guns standard on most heavy cruisers[[/note]] on both sides. However due to carrier mechanics, they are treated as secondaries and due to secondary gun mechanics they only ever fire AP and are limited to the same range as her other guns. This means they are only functionally useful against full broadside cruisers and battleships that are in point blank range of you.
** 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.
* {{BFG}} Currently mounts bigger guns than any carrier in the game. Not that they are really useful in any way.
** 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.
* ZergRush: Her torpedo bomber squadrons have more planes than the other Japanese carriers, even though those are the same planes used by the other carriers.

Japanese tier 8 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''.
!Taiho
Japanese tier 9 aircraft carrier.\\

''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.
* PutOnABus: Removed following the 8.0 CV rework, with no plans to return.
* 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.

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.

* UnfortunateNames: The only ship that has a name that will get censored by the in-game profanity filter [[note]] appearing as A***aka instead of the proper name [[/note]], and its name is the source of jokes by several people, especially those that think the ship underperforms for the tier.

* 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 with 203mm guns that can citadel a carelessly positioned Kongo. In exchange, she can reach speeds of 31 knots.

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 460mm/50 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).

* Long-RangeFighter: She has an impressive range of 21 km, the best in her tier, and can extend that even further with a spotting aircraft. However her dispersion at those ranges is generally poor.

* StealthExpert: With the right setup she only gets spotted at 5.4km!

* BraggingRightsReward: While not useless unlike most examples of the trope, it's only available as a reward ship for completing a long chain of missions at tier 8-10. Its also generally inferior to the Kamikaze trio if you're lucky enough to own one of those ships.

She did get a minor nerf to her concealment, but this barley changed anything.

!Hayate Japanese Tier X destroyer.

* 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 pssobiel 10km concealment, allowing for stealth torpedo attacks. However she gets ''terrible'' torpedo firing ars, requiring to show a flat broadside to fire them. Worse, the small low tier maps she often finds her self on rarley have enough open space to actually make use of her maximum torpedo range.

* MoreDakka: With 155mm guns, she has 15 of them in five triple turrets, and is matched only by the two ''Brookyn''-class light cruisers on the US tech tree (''Helena'' and ''Boise'') one tier below.

* NecessaryDrawback: She has lower rate of fire for the main guns, despite esentially using the same guns as the other Japanese heavy cruisers. In addition, her turret placement still resembles Myoko's rather than Mogami's which makes her No 3 turret sometimes hard to fire.

* FragileSpeedster: Her armor is rather lacking for a battleship, and it is possible for her to get citadel penetration from cruisers, not to mentiom her matchmaking spread has heavy cruisers with 203mm guns that can citadel a carelessly positioned Kongo. In exchange, she can reach speeds of 31 knots.
* Long-RangeFighter: She has an impressive range of 21 km, and can extend that even further with a spotting aircraft. However her dispersion at those ranges is generally poor.

* 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.

* BraggingRightsReward: While not useless unlike most examples of the trope, it's only available as a reward ship for completing a long chain of missions at tier 8-10.

* QualityVsQuantity: Falls firmly on the side of quantity. She can take more planes to the sky than any other tier 7 in massive squadrons but the trade off is they are all tier six planes.

* {{BFG}}: Tied with ''Yamato'' for having the biggest in the game thanks to being sister-ships of the same class, far eclipsing her peers at tier IX and even Tier X

A ''battlecruiser'' (quite unusual for Tier VII, 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.

A theoretical "super" Yamato, wielding six massive ''510mm/45 caliber'' guns.

Japanese tier 8 (formerly tier 7) premium carrier and one of only four premium aircraft carriers in the game (the others being the ''USS Saipan'', the ''USS Enterprise'' and the ''Graf Zeppelin'').\\

** 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 effective.

** The CV rework made CV secondaries much more accurate, you really want to stay away from Kaga now.

* KillItWithFire: She mounts He dive bombers unlike other Japanese carriers after the rework. Her massive quantity of bombs doped makes for some good fire starting.

** 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 reduce squadrons in size to avoid losses as is common. 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 edurance 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.

* LightningBruiser: Extremely thick armor? check. Biggest guns in the game? Check. Respectable 27 knot speed? check. Good secondary suite? Check!
!Yashima

The first purpose-built aircraft carrier to be commisioned in the world, ''Hosho'' ("Flying Phoenix")was completed in 1922 and commissioned in the same year, although she did not begin fielding aircraft until 1923 due to being commissioned lacking most of her aviation equipment. The ship provided valuable lessons and experience on carrier-borne aviation and carrier operations to the Japanese, and was involved in the opening stages of the [[UsefulNotes/SecondSinoJapaneseWar second Japanese incursion into China]], where her airgroup provided support to the IJA on the ground and dueled Chinese aircraft in the skies. Her small size and her limited airgroup made her ill-suited for frontline operations, and so ''Hosho'' was designated as a training carrier in 1939. She even participated in the disastrous Battle of Midway in a secondary role, and one of her aircraft even took a photograph of the burning, sinking ''Hiryu''. Afterwards, she continued service as a training ship for Japanese naval aviator recruits until the surrender of Japan, where she briefly saw service as repatriation transport before being scrapped in 1946.

Another concept based on Akizuki and Shimikaze. However this unlike the Kitakaze design, Harugumo prioritizes armament over speed.
* AchillesHeel: Harugumo does not like like torpedoes being sent her way. At all. She is already very large and clumsy for a DD, but her tendency to sit in hydro combined with her lack of hydroacoustic search means that by the time you spot torpedoes, it is already too late to dodge.

* UndergroundMonkey: This ship has a total of 6 reskins, the 4 ARP ships and the 2 dragons.

* NecessaryDrawback: She has lower rate of fire for the main guns, despite esentially using the same guns as the other Japanese heavy cruisers. In addition, her turret placement still resembles Myoko's rather than Mogami's which made her No 3 turret sometimes hard to fire.

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

* {{BFG}}: The largest guns in the game, 460mm (18 inch). They're notorious for penetrating everything. (The caliber is so large it overmatches the thin deck and bow armor on almost every ship, causing massive damage.)

* MasterOfNone: The biggest complaint about Azuma is that she combines the weaknesses of a battleship and 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.

Built in Barrow-in-Furness as a modified version of the Formidable-class of pre-dreadnought battleships, Mikasa was named after Mt. Mikasa in Japan. She was the flagship of Admiral Togo Heihachiro, who commanded the Imperial Japanese Navy during the Russo-Japanese War, including the legendary Battle of Tsushima where the IJN annihilated the Russian Empire's Pacific Fleet while only losing 3 torpedo boats in return. After the war, she sank at her moorings in Sasebo due to a magazine explosion, although she was raised the next year. She was re-classified as a first-class coastal defense ship in World War I and was decommisioned in 1922 in compliance with the Washington Naval Treaty. However, the Japanese government managed to successfully persuade the treaty signatories to allow her to be preserved, with her hull encased in concrete. In 1926, the ship was opened for display, with then-Crown Prince Hirohito and Togo Heihachiro in attendance. Her legend was such that a street in Barrow-in-Furness was named Mikasa Street, and another brewery in the same region commemorated her building by creating a real, drinkable ale.

In-game, she appears as the only pre-dreadnought battleship, as well as the only tier 2 battleship in the game.

The lead ship of the Nagato-class battleships, the IJN Nagato was named after the Nagato province in Japan and was built in the 1910s. Launched after the war ended, Nagato carried supplies to help the survivors of the 1923 Great Kanto Earthquake. In 1934-1936 the ship was refit with extra armor and a pagoda mast that was iconic of Japanese ships of the era. Isoroku Yamamoto issued the order to attack Pearl Harbor from the Nagato, which was his flagship at the time. Nagato survived till the end of the war and was the only Japanese battleship still afloat at the time of surrender, being seized by the Americans. She was sunk as a target in Operation Crossroads one year later, and her wreck became a scuba diving site.
* SoleSurvivor: The only Japanese battleship to survive the war intact.