Warships attributed to the Imperial Japanese Navy (大日本帝国海軍 Dai-Nippon Teikoku Kaigun) in World of Warships.

The Imperial Japanese Navy (also called 日本海軍 Nippon Kaigun for short) was one of the two factions to be introduced on the game's launch, with all four main lines. In December 2016 alternative line of Destroyers was released. In August 2018 this line was finally extended to the Xth Tier.

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

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Researchable ships

Japanese Destroyers - Torpedo Boats

Japanese Destroyers are defined by the "stealth torpedo" strategy: Launching torpedoes from outside of detection range to nail unaware captains. To do this, they possess some of the best concealment values in the game and long-range and high-damage torpedoes. This comes at the cost of their guns, which tend to be accurate but fire and turn slowly.

Umikaze

Tier II Japanese Destroyer. Umikaze-class was the first series of large (>1000 tons of displacement) destroyers, built in Japan. They were built in 1909-1911, and were used in WWI to search for German East Asia Squadron. Both ships of the class were turned into minesweepers in 1930, and decommissioned in 1936.

Wakatake

Tier III Japanese Destroyer. A series of eight small "second-class" destroyers, the Wakatake-class was built in 1921-1925. Their small size limited their utility, and one of them even sank in a storm. As such, they were used primarily in coastal waters around Japan and 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.

Anachronic Order: Wakatake-class was built in 1921-1924, but here they are put before Isokaze-class, constructed in 1916-1917. Justified, as they were specifically designed to be smaller and cheaper than previous classes.

Isokaze

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

Nerf: Got heavily nerfed during the IJN DD rework, and is now a shadow of her former self.

Mutsuki

Tier V Japanese Destroyer of the torpedo line. The 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.

Theme Naming: They were named after poetic names of months of the year.

Fubuki

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

Adaptational Wimp: She inexplicably lacks the "X"-position (the first after the superstructure) turret, her guns reload longer, and lack AA capabilities. All that was needed to put the destroyer on Tier VI without wrecking the game balance.

Akatsuki

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. Only one of them, Hibiki, survived the war and was given to the USSR, where she served as Verny until 1953.

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

Tier VIII Japanese Destroyer of the torpedo line. The second^note series of Japanese destroyers to exceed 2000 tons of displacement, they were built in 1937-1941. Unlike the 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 the ROCN until 1970, that being the famed Yukikaze.^note

Macross Missile Massacre: Starting at this tier Japanese destroyers can mount the torpedo reload booster.
Master of None: 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.

Yūgumo

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

Jack of All Stats: The only Japanese destroyer other than Akizuki with decent guns and can be tailored to be a gunboat. Unlike Akizuki however, she has a pair of quad torpedo tubes like the Kagero and Shiratsuyu, and has access to better torpedoes.

Shimakaze

Tier X Japanese Destroyer of the torpedo line. The most powerful destroyer of the IJN, she was built as a Super Prototype of a new generation of warships. She was laid down in 1941 and completed in 1943, but was sunk by American aircraft on 11 November 1944.

Macross Missile Massacre: With 3 quintuple torpedo tubes, she can launch 15 torpedoes at once.
Master of None: Zigzagged She does still boast the the strongest torpedo broadside by a wide margin (though said torpedoes still have their flaws), and she is still very fast and stealthy. However, Shimakaze is considered the most off-meta of the tier 10 destroyers since she really struggles in a fight with another DD. Especially since the addition of Harugumo and Daring, which have such high gun DPM they can drop a Shimakaze almost faster than she can launch torpedoes. But where this trope really comes into play is that other destroyers have torpedoes with almost or better torpedoes, but with less quantity.
Stealth Expert: Very low detection range.
Super Prototype: Well, she was this in Real Life. It's one of the few Tier X ships that existed IRL, and her in-game self successfully competes even with post-war designs.
Weaksauce Weakness: Her torpedoes have very bad detection ranges (the longest-torpedo option has a detection range of 2.5km).

Yamagiri

Japanese Super-Destroyer of the torpedo line. A larger version of Shimakaze that has one more torpedo tube in each mount.

More Dakka: She has an alternative firing mode, that allows her to shoot three salvos with negligible reload, and then reload for a long time.
Multi-Ranged Master: She can switch between two sets of torpedos in battle: 20 and 12 km (20 and 8 with alternative loadout).

Japanese Destroyers - Leaders

At Tier V the line branches into a mini-line of more well-rounded destroyers. While these boats are still armed with great torpedoes (albeit less of them), their guns have somewhat improved turn time and reload. Starting at Tier VIII they also get dual-purpose main battery and a Torpedo Reload consumable in a separate slot.

Pint-Sized Powerhouse: Not ships themselves - they are actually quite big, but their guns. At Tier VIII their caliber drops to 100mm, but their HE shells gain the same armor-piercing capabilities as cruiser-mounted 152mm and 180mm guns.

Minekaze

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 previous classes that were based solely on British designs, the Minekaze-class incorporated a number of innovations based on German destroyers that were handed over to Japan as war 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 the ROCN until 1960.

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. The Hatsuharu-class, constructed in 1931-1935, was a smaller, but more modern version of the Fubuki design. All six ships were lost in WWII.

Adaptational Wimp: She lacks her single X-position gun mount, so Shiratsuyu can feel like a significnt improvement. The in-game version has a piece of superstructure with a single AA gun on top replacing said mount.

Shiratsuyu

Tier VII Japanese Destroyer of the universal line. Shiratsuyu-class was a further improvement of Hatsuharu-class, which by the end of the series deviated from the original so far, the first and the last ships of the series were practically different classes. Ten ships were built in 1933-1937, but none survived the war.

Macross Missile Massacre: 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. 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.

Anti-Air: 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. Historically, her 100mm guns were Japan's first true dual-purpose guns, which could be reloaded at any elevation.
Death by a Thousand Cuts: 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.
Mighty Glacier: She's one of the slowest destroyers but carries firepower closer to that of a light cruiser.
Military Mashup Machine: Has the speed, size, and turning circle of a light cruiser. Only the smaller caliber guns prevent her from completing the light cruiser package.
More Dakka: 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. So-called Kai Akizuki-class, which was planned as a larger and more capable version of Akizuki proper, this ship boasts two more torpedos in her one launcher, and a higher speed. Kitakaze was the name of one of the mass-produced Shimakaze-class ships, which was cancelled and re-ordered as a Kai Akizuki.

Macross Missile Massacre: It sports a hextuple torpedo launcher and has a torpedo reload booster allowing it to fire twelve torps in a short time.
Master of All: 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.
Lightning Bruiser: 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. A hypothetical developement of Kai Akizuki, this ship has one more gun mount over its predecessor, at expence of larger size and a bit of speed.

Achilles' Heel: 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.
Military Mashup Machine: 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.
Mighty Glacier: 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.
More Dakka: Harugumo has ten rapid fire guns, more than any other DD in the game.

Japanese Cruisers - Light

Japanese light cruisers are very typical for their class, featuring large number of guns with small calibre and overall good fire-setting capability. Unusually their guns' reload time actually increases as player goes up the Tiers, reaching heavy cruiser levels at Tier IX, but their large amount outweigh this downside. Much like their heavy counterparts, Japanese light cruisers mount large amount of torpedoes, but their firing angles are much better thanks to torpedoes turning by themselves after launch.

Roboteching: As mentioned before, their torpedoes turn by themselves right in the water, allowing for better firing angles.

Agano

Tier V Japanese Cruiser of Light Cruisers line. A series of four light cruisers, built in 1940-1944, to replace older post-WWI desins as flagships for destroyer squadrons. Three ships were lost in closing years of the war, with the last surviving only because there was not enough fuel for her and her squadron to accompany Yamato in her last mission. The surviving ship was later sunk by Americans as a target in a nuclear test.

Gokase

Tier VI Japanese Cruiser of Light Cruisers line. It is a hypotetical evolution of Agano-class, based on it hull, but with addition of fourth turret, and with better AA guns.

Omono

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.

Shimanto

Tier VIII Japanese Cruiser of Light Cruisers line. Based on the hull of Mogami-class, they mount new guns, based on the largest AA gun Japan ever produced - 150mm/60 Type 5, which improves ther AA capabilities dramatically.

Removed Achilles' Heel: Starting at this point, the line gets rid of Japanese tree's weakest point - weak AA defence. Historically, while 150mm/60 Type 5 guns were never installed on any ships, two of their experimental mounts shot down two B-29 Superfortress bombers in a single engagement, after which Americans started avoiding the place of their dislocation. In the game, Yodo boasts the single most powerful long-range AA battery among researchable ships on Tier X, although her mid-range AA is middling at best.

Takahashi

Tier IX Japanese Cruiser of Light Cruisers line. This ship is loosely based on enlarged version of Tone's hull, giving one more torpedo in each launcher, while retaining aforementioned main battery of fifteen uiversal guns.

Yodo

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.

Japanese Cruisers - Heavy

Japanese heavy 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.

Hashidate

Japanese Tier 1 cruiser, available for free the first time you log in to the game. She was 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 the 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 in the South China Sea, while towing a crippled merchant passenger/cargo ship.

Fragile Speedster: She's an agile cruiser that often burns under HE fire, on top of weak armoring.
Starter Equipment: First IJN ship available for free at the start of the game.

Chikuma

Tier II Japanese Cruiser

Tenryu

Tier III Japanese Cruiser

Fragile Speedster: Has fairly decent guns and powerful torpedoes, but her destroyer-like armor won't hold long against continuous fire.

Kuma

Tier IV Japanese Cruiser

Crippling Overspecialization: Has pretty good torpedoes for a tier 4 ship, at the cost of the rest of the ship being rather lackluster.

Furutaka

Tier V Japanese Cruiser of Heavy Cruisers line. 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".

BFG After a couple rounds of buffs, she's the lowest tier cruiser to get access to 203mm guns.
Glass Cannon: Despite being a Heavy Cruiser, her armor is no better than most Light Cruisers. However, her 203mm guns will easily citadel any other cruisers at her tier or even higher since she has the same guns used by the higher tier Japanese cruisers. In addition, she is the first cruiser with 10km torpedoes- not even Japanese destroyers get this torpedo range at tier V.
Magikarp Power: Used to be a downplayed example. In her base hull she had six single gun mounts in an incredibly awkward configuration - two groups of three mounts on both bow and stern, organized in "pyramids". In her upgraded hull, however, she was getting three dual mounts - two on the bow and one on the stern. While Furutaka's broadside went unchanged, her front salvo basically doubled from this upgrade, not to mention redusing the pain from managing all these mounts. Her originas base hull has been since removed, and now she has three dual mounts from the get-go.
Sudden Gameplay Change: 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.

Aoba

Tier VI Japanese Cruiser of Heavy Cruisers line. 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.

Myoko

Tier VII Japanese Cruiser of Heavy Cruisers line.

Macross Missile Massacre: The first Japanese cruiser with 2 sets of triple torpedo tubes on each side
Underground Monkey: This ship has a total of 6 reskins: the 4 ARP cruisers and the 2 dragons.

Mogami

Tier VIII Japanese Cruiser of Heavy Cruisers line.

Mogami was the lead ship of her class and an example of Loophole Abuse 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 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.

Elite Tweak: She can use the 155mm guns in order to set fires and annoy battleships, or the 203mm guns in order to inflict opportunistic, crippling damage to broadsiding cruisers.
Loophole Abuse: The reason for the 155mm guns is to allow her to be branded as light cruiser, though the 203mm guns are still an option.
More Dakka: With 155mm guns, she has 15 of them in five triple turrets, and is matched only by the two Brooklyn-class light cruisers on the US tech tree (Helena and Boise) one tier below.
Ur-Example: Of the "heavy light" cruiser as well as the Trope Maker. Unlike previous light cruisers which had six to eight 152mm cannons and were very poorly armored, Mogami had fifteen main battery guns and heavy cruiser armor. Most nations would then field light cruisers of similar size. However Mogami only did this for the sake of Loophole Abuse and was converted to a true heavy cruiser at the first opportunity.

Ibuki

Tier IX Japanese Cruiser of Heavy Cruisers line.

Alternate History: In WoWS' timeline Ibuki was never converted to a carrier, as she was in real life.

Zao

Tier X Japanese Cruiser of Heavy Cruisers line.

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/wows_zao.png

Artistic License – History: 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 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.
Meaningful Name: Like most IJN heavy cruisers, she is named after a mountain. But Zao's namesake also happens to be a volcano, very appropriate for a ship with a reputation as a fire starter.
Spell My Name With An S: 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).

Japanese Battleships - Battlecruisers

Second line of Japanese battleships starts at Tier VIII and, much like the American Dreadnought line, consists of never-built ships, construction of which was prevented by the Washington Naval Conference. Japanese battlecruisers are even more reliant on the "sniper" playstyle than their heavier counterparts, and possess long-range main battery, good concealment and higher-than-average speed. Their main weaknesses are weak armor and small HP pool, making them unsuitable for close-range combat.

Yumihari

Tier VIII Japanese Battleship of the Battlecruisers line. Project B-62 was a part of so-called "Eight-Four fleet", a naval strategy that called for having eight battleships and four battlecruisers available. Armed with four dual 410mm guns, the project was an evolution of Kongo-class battlecruisers. Later on, the project had another turret added, becoming the Amagi-class.

Adatara

Tier IX Japanese Battleship of the Battlecruisers line. After Amagi- and Nagato-classes were laid down, it became clear how much they upstage the previous Kongo- and Fuso-classes. The program was revised, becoming "Eight-Eight fleet", with Nagato as battleship №1. The new Number 13-class ships were meant to become new four battleships, but they were never laid down due to the Washington Naval Treaty.

Bungo

Tier X Japanese Battleship of the Battlecruisers line. As a part of the "Eight-Eight fleet", Japan also had to build four battlecruisers. Project L was a possible variation of the project, but in the end another project was chosen, one that would become Kii-class.

Japanese Battleships - Fast Battleships

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.

Kawachi

Tier III Japanese Battleship

A-Team Firing: Her main problem; the guns are rather inaccurate.
Joke Character: As slow as the South Carolina, with even worse dispersion; even at ranges of 2km, the guns can miss.

Myogi

Tier IV Japanese Battleship

Fragile Speedster: Like Kongo, she trades armor for speed being a battlecruiser. She can reach 27 knots and has a pretty hefty broadside.
Long-Range Fighter: Fully upgraded has a staggering range of 18km for the tier, which can be further extended to 22km with the spotter aircraft it can carry.

Kongō

Tier V Japanese Battleship

Kongō was the lead ship of a class of four battlecruisers laid down in response to the construction of HMS Invincible in 1912. Kongō had the distinction of being the last Japanese capital ship built outside Japan; she was constructed in England, while her sisters were all built in Japan. They were essentially improved versions of the RN's Lion-class battlecruisers and were considered some of the best capital ships of the day, though WWI didn't provide them a chance to show off. From 1929-1931, Kongō underwent the first of two substantial overhauls that saw her upgraded to the status of a battleship. The second overhaul, undertaken after Japan withdrew from the London Naval Treaty, further enhanced her speed and armor and earned her the status of a fast battleship. Kongō led a charmed life for the early part of the Pacific War; despite being repeatedly attacked by Allied planes, she was never hit. She also participated in the most successful Japanese battleship action of the war, during the Guadalcanal campaign. She and her sister Haruna sprinted down to Guadalcanal under cover of night and smashed the Marines' main airfield with almost a thousand 356mm shells, retreating before the dazed American aviators could launch a counterattack with their remaining planes. Kongō's luck held out until 1944, when she ate two torpedoes from USS Sealion and sank several hours later with most of her crew.

Fragile Speedster: 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 Kongō. In exchange, she can reach speeds of 31 knots. (Justified, as she and her sisters were originally laid down as battlecruisers and were only rerated as battleships after extensive rebuilding in the 1930s.)
Long-Range Fighter: 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.
Underground Monkey: The four ARP Kongo ships in neon colors are identical in performance, with the exception of being premium ships.

Fuso

Tier VI Japanese Battleship

Powerful, but Inaccurate: Carries a heavy 12 gun broadside, but the dispersion is terrible.

Nagato

Tier VII Japanese Battleship

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 atomic bomb testing at Bikini Atoll.

Amagi

Tier VIII Japanese Battleship of the Fast Battleships line.. A battlecruiser 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.

Mid-Season Upgrade: Essentially a faster Nagato with an extra gun turret.

Izumo

Tier IX Japanese Battleship of the Fast Battleships line.. 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.

Attack Its Weak Point: 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.
Difficult, but Awesome: 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.

Yamato

Tier X Japanese Battleship of the Fast Battleships line.. 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.

BFG: Formerly 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.)
Lightning Bruiser: Extremely thick armor? check. (Formerly) Biggest guns in the game? Check. Respectable 27 knot speed? Check. Good secondary suite? Check!
Point Defenseless: 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 license-built copy of a French design which itself was vastly inferior to the 20mm Oerlikon.

Satsuma

Japanese Super-Battleship. A larger, longer version of Yamato and Shikishima, armed with four twin 510mm guns.

Limit Break: She has Combat Instructions that allow her to temporarily boost her main battery accuracy after carrying out adjustment fire.
Power Up Letdown: Generally, her AA is stronger than Yamato's, but since she has less small-range guns in favor of medium-range ones (that Yamato lacks), her short-range aura is weaker than her predecessor's.

Japanese Aircraft Carriers

Japanese carriers utilize more squads of fewer planes, with a focus on torpedo bombers. They are excellent at repeated strikes on enemy 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.

After the CV rework, Japanese planes became characterized by fearsome torpedo bombers and devastating armor piercing dive bombers. The carriers themselves retain their stealthy characteristics.

Hosho

Tier IV Japanese Aircraft Carrier. 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 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.

Ur-Example: of Aircraft Carriers, being the first purpose-built aircraft carrier to be commissioned in real life.

Ryujo

Tier VI Japanese Aircraft Carrier. Ryujo ("Prancing Dragon") was a light aircraft carrier with a flush-deck ^note built in light of the infamous Washington Naval Treaty of 1922, in 1929. Designed to exploit a loophole in the treaty requirements ^note, the carrier was only lightly built and virtually armor-less to keep her below 10,000 tons. ^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, allowing her to carry a massive amount of aircraft for a carrier of such diminutive stature 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 Second Sino-Japanese War 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.

Shokaku

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.

Hakuryu

Tier X Japanese Aircraft Carrier. A modification of the "Taiho Kai"^note to take that design's flaws into account. Hakuryu's design was the last purpose built aircraft carrier conceived for the IJN.

Stealth Expert: 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 Good Bad Bug discovered during the public testing of the rework and was carried over to the live server unpatched, this gets taken up a notch, 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.

Premium ships

Japanese Premium Destroyers

Fūjin

Palette Swap: Of the Kamikaze

Kamikaze/Kamikaze R

Tier V Premium Japanese Destroyers

Bribing Your Way to Victory: An interesting example. She used to be nearly identical to the Minekaze, 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.
Stealth Expert: With the right setup she only gets spotted at only 5.4km!

Shinonome

Tier VI special Japanese Destroyer

Bragging Rights Reward: 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.

Asashio

Tier VIII Premium Japanese Destroyer

Crippling Over Specialization: She mounts deepwater torpedoes that have incredible damage, range, speed and flooding chance, 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.
Macross Missile Massacre: She has insanely long range torpedoes and comes with a torpedo reload booster.

Hayate

Tier X special Japanese 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.

Bribing Your Way to Victory: 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 have to convert this experience from somewhere.
Jack of All Stats: She is a midpoint between Shimakaze and Hayate, having less torpedoes than Shima, but bigger guns than the Hayate.

Japanese Premium Cruisers

Katori

Anti-Air: While her actual AA guns are a joke, she's the lowest tier ship to get access to the Catapult Fighter consumable.
Joke Character: 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.
- Lethal Joke Character: 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.
Starter Equipment: 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

Anti-Air: The lowest tier cruiser with the Defensive Fire consumable.
Point Defenseless: However, after the CV rework where all Defensive fire was nerfed, she became much weaker against aircraft.

Iwaki Alpha

Bribing Your Way to Victory: 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 probably a good thing she's only available to Alpha testers.
Military Mashup Machine: 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. She also managed to survive nearly to the end of the war, only to be sunk during Operation Ten-Go, Yamato's last sortie.

Crippling Overspecialization: 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 12km 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 herself on rarely have enough open space to actually make use of her maximum torpedo range.
Lethal Joke Character: 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.
Military Mashup Machine: She's a light cruiser that plays more like a destroyer due to her engine boost and extremely long range torpedoes.

Atago

Heal Thyself: 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.
Hidden Weapons: 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.
Necessary Drawback: 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.
Stealth Expert: 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.

Azuma

Tier IX Premium Japanese CruiserAzuma is one of two ships in the game based on the B-65 cruiser concept, a reply to to America's Alaska design.

Master of None: 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.

Kitakami

Tier X special Japanese Cruiser

Glass Cannon: She 28500 HP, comparable to some destroyers, and 40 610mm torpedo tubes.
Nerf: She was reassigned to Tier X without really changing anything about her, including her abysmal HP pool.
Macross Missile Massacre: With that amount of torpedo tubes, this is pretty much her purpose.

Japanese Premium Battleships

Mikasa

Tier II Premium Japanese BattleshipFlagship of Togo Heihachiro during the Russo-Japanese War. She is the only tier 2 battleship in the game, as well as the only pre-dreadnought battleship in the game. The Real Life Mikasa is also the only surviving example of a pre-dreadnought anywhere in the world; she's been preserved as a museum in Yokosuka.

Close-Range Combatant: 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 she is really slow.
Damage-Sponge Boss: Has as much HP as an upgraded South Carolina - a tier 3 battleship.
Point Defenseless: Inverted. Her secondaries are arguably better than her inaccurate main battery guns.

Ishizuchi

Tier IV Premium Japanese Battleship. It was once given out to all players for free as a 2018 New Year gift.One of the draft designs for a battlecruiser of the Imperial Japanese Navy that subsequently materialized as the Kongō 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 Kongō.

Fragile Speedster: Like Kongō, she trades armor for speed being a battlecruiser. She can reach 27 knots and has a pretty hefty broadside.
Kill It with Fire: 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.
Theme Naming: While this ship design turned into Kongō in real-life, the name "Ishizuchi" was given to the design by Wargaming in accordance with the Imperial Japanese tradition of naming heavy cruisers (and by extension battlecruisers) after mountains.

Mutsu

Tier VI Premium Japanese Battleship. Mutsu is basically a down-tiered, World War 1-configured Nagato-class battleship- rather appropriately, as Mutsu is Nagato's sister ship. 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. Mutsu was partially funded by public subscription and barely saved from the Washington Naval Treaty but saw no action prior to exploding in harbor for unclear reasons- the investigation blamed the explosion on sabotage of no. 3 turret by a disgruntled and supposedly suicidal crewman. Thankfully, Mutsu in-game is no more prone to randomly exploding than any other ship.

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.
Cursed with Awesome: 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.
Lightning Bruiser: 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.
Macross Missile Massacre: 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.
Point Defenseless: Her AA would be considered bad on a tier 4 ship, never mind tier 6.

Ashitaka

Ashitaka is essentially the now removed A hull of Amagi down-tiered to tier seven.

Glass Cannon: 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.
Point Defenseless: AA is almost nonexistent for her tier and she absolutely must be escorted by cruisers for AA protection.
Scunthorpe Problem: Her name is rendered A***aka on clients with the profanity filter running. See below.

Kii

Tier VIII Premium Japanese Battleship. A proper battleship design of the Amagi-class, 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

Anti-Air: 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)
Glass Cannon: 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.
Master of None: 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 "Jack of All Stats" premium tier 8 battleships doesn't help matters much.
Point Defenseless: 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.

Musashi

Tier IX Premium Japanese Battleship. The sister ship to the Yamato, in her pre-AA retrofit form. Previously available for Free XP, she was pulled due to basically being Yamato at Tier IX (which meant an easier matchmaking spread than Yamato).

Achilles' Heel: Musashi is an unassailable fortress unless being assaulted by aircraft or having her flank exposed (making her vulnerable to citadels and torpedo strikes). This is, of course, true to Real Life.
Battle Star: 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.
Bribing Your Way to Victory: Being Yamato's sister ship, 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 Hit Points, the same armor protection as Yamato including the best torpedo bulge armor in the game and the same speed and maneuverability. In return, Musashi's only sacrifices are weaker AA and secondary armament, and a slightly lower Sigma-value on her main battery^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.
The Dreaded: 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.
Point Defenseless: One of the differences between her and Yamato is that she loses almost half of Yamatos secondary array and a great deal of Yamatos already questionable AA.
Lightning Bruiser: While the slowest in her tier she still moves pretty quickly despite having the most armor and HP.^note Unlike Yamato, she will very frequently encounter battleships much slower than her like Nelson and Colorado.

Shikishima (formerly Yashima)

Tier X special Japanese Battleship. A theoretical "super" Yamato, wielding six massive ''510mm/45 caliber'' guns.

Awesome, but Impractical: Due to having the biggest guns in the game, unless your aim is dead-on (and RN Gsus is nice), you're going to be scoring a lot of overpenetration 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/20.1 inch twins in 3 turrets, taking the Yamato's legendary penning up a notch.
There Is No Kill Like Overkill: 510mm (20.1 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 dialed it back down when they crunched the numbers and found the ship necessary to yield such an insane arsenal was too big (~90,000 tons) and thus too heavy 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 Premium Carriers

Kaga

Tier VIII Premium Japanese (formerly tier VII) premium carrier and one of he few premium aircraft carriers in the game.
Intended to be one of the two Tosa-class battleships, Kaga (named after the ancient Kaga province of Japan) was selected mid-construction for conversion to an aircraft carrier following the Washington Naval Treaty ^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 Enterprise and was ultimately scuttled by the Kagero-class destroyer Hagikaze. Debris from her wreck was located in 1999 at a depth of 5200 meters, 560km northwest of Midway Island. The wreck itself was located twenty years later; it sits upright on the ocean floor at a depth of 5400 meters.

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.

The Battlestar: Heavily downplayed despite Kaga in real life being a prominent example. Kaga boasts an impressive array of 200mm guns ^notea hair shy of the 8inch (203mm) guns standard on most heavy cruisers 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 200mm 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 Kagas aren't quite at the memetic levels of Graf Zeppelins.
Determinator: Kaga mounts very large squadrons and even counting that a proportionally very high number of planes on deck. Even without "cold dropping" ^note it can use any one of its attack wings three times even if no 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.
Kill It with Fire: 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.
Quality vs. Quantity: Falls firmly on the side of quantity. She can put more planes in the sky than any other tier 8, and in massive squadrons, but the trade-off is that they are all tier six planes.
We Have Reserves: She has such 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 C Vs 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 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 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.
Zerg Rush: Her torpedo bomber squadrons have more planes than the other Japanese carriers, even though those are the same planes used by the other carriers.

Other

Removed Japanese Ships

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.

Put on a Bus: Removed following the 8.0 CV rework, with no plans to return.

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. Afterwards, her aircraft saw action at the Battle of Wake Island (just one day after Pearl Harbor), the Japanese invasion of the 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 the airstrike that took out the other three Japanese carriers in the battle ^note, 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 Yorktown and Enterprise to locate and finish the job, sending the Hiryu along with many experienced Japanese ship crewmen and aviators to the seabed.

Put on a Bus: Removed following the 8.0 CV rework, with no plans to return.

Taiho

Japanese tier 9 aircraft carrier.
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 and turning the ship into a timebomb. Poor damage control caused the Deadly Gas to spread to other parts of the ship, and several hours after the torpedo hit, Taiho blew up and settled in the water, clearly 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.

Put on a Bus: Removed following the 8.0 CV rework, with no plans to return.
Lightning Bruiser: Taiho sported an armored flight deck while being able to move a respectable 33.5 knots. She also had a rather deadly air wing.

Characters / World Of Warships Japan

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