Imperial Japanese Equipment

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The Empire of Japan: the first East Asian country to successfully industrialize in the late 19th century and from the 1930s to 45 the scourge of the Pacific. While better off than Italy, Japan still lagged behind in a lot of fields and had major raw materials and fuel shortages.

Small Arms

Rifles and SMGs

Japan's small arms were generally less advanced than that of other countries at the time; while most countries still relied on bolt-action rifles as their service weapon, many countries still produced decent quantities of SMGs as well as self-loading rifles in more limited numbers. Japan however focused primarily on bolt-action rifles, with fewer automatic weapons to back them up. Weapon quality also suffered later in the war as well.

• Type 30 Arisaka: Japan's old rifle, put into service in 1899. Fired a 6.5x50mm bullet. Generally a solid five-shot bolt action for it's day, if a bit underpowered
• Type 38 Arisaka: Update on the Type-30. Used primarily in WWI, and partially replaced by the Type 99 in WWII.
• Type 99 Arisaka: Built to replace the Type 30 and Type 38 by firing a 7.7x58mm cartridge. Improvements to the sights also made it the preferred rifle for snipers. That said, the Japanese still ad a lot of Type 38s and 6.5x50mm, so it never fully replaced the Type 38.
• Type 100 Nambu: The only production SMG made by the Japanese, and made in more limited numbers compared to other militaries. The Nambu SMG fired the same 8x22mm cartridge as the standard Nambu pistol. It had sideloading magazine much like the earlier MP18; while side-loading magazines had fallen out of favor by this time due to the unbalanced weight, it was a hell of lot better than the other experimental Nambu SMGs that had been made at the time.
• Last Ditch Rifles: In the late war, Japanese manufacturing had been effectively crippled and resources were in short supply, so these so-called "Last Ditch Rifles" were made to arm what military forces remained, as well as civilians for the upcoming invasion of the Japanese home islands. These ranged from simplified versions of the Type 99 to very crude single-shot rifles.

Pistols

• 'Type 26 Revolver: A simple break-action hammerless revolver, chambered in 9mm Japanese revolvr. Was invented back in 1893 but was still used in WWII to supplement weapon stockpiles.
• Nambu Type 14: The standard sidearm of the IJA following WWI, replacing the Type 26. Chambered in 8x22mm, it wasn't as strong as contemporary pistols, but was solidly built, and later became the inspiration for the Ruger .22 pistol.
• Nambu Type 94: A smaller, lighter-weight pistol compared to the type 14. It was called the "Surrender Pistol" because it had an exposed sear, meaning that pressing down on the sear could fire the gun without pulling the trigger, so supposedly a Japanese soldier could fake surrendering so that they could shoot their captors up close. These stories however are unsubstantiated, as it takes a considerable amount of force to squeeze the sear hard enough to fire the pistol.

Machine Guns

• Type 11 Light Machine gun: Put into service in 1922, this gun is weird. Basic idea, make a machine gun that could use the 5 round stripper clips used by Arasaka Rifles. That means you don't have to make special magazines for it or ship them to the front, while regular infantry dudes can supply it with bullets. So it has this weird hopper magazine that takes up to 6 clips. This also meant putting the stock off to the side. While it worked, it was heavy, awkward and not terribly reliable.
• Type 99 Light Machine Gun

Misc

• Type 89 and Type 10 Grenade dischargers, aka "Knee Mortars"
• Guntō: Bargain Basement knock-off katanas. It was a regulation that all IJA officers were required to carry a sword and to that end a large number of these swords were made. Since Japan was raising a fuck-huge army under the militarists, they dispensed with the old arts of Sword Production and instead produced lots of blades not up to snuff.

Vehicles

Tanks

The Tank Fleet of the Imperial Japanese Army was not that great, largely by being at the back of the line. Tanks take a lot of money, labour and equipment to produce and a lot of fuel to operate. In China, 1930s era tanks were still quite effective and if war happened with the United States the fleet and air force obvious took priority.

Ships

Of all the Axis powers, the Empire of Japan had the strongest navy. Germany had to rebuild it's fleet effectively from scratch over six years and Italy...well had all of Italy's problems. Japan in contrast kept it's fleet from WWI and upgraded and expanded it fairly well in the 1920s and 30s.

Aircraft Carriers

• Akagi

Battleships

• Yamato class:
• Nagato class: