Arisaka Type 99 Rifle

The Type 99 is a bolt-action service rifle adopted by the Imperial Japanese Army in 1939, part of the Arisaka family of rifles that traces its name and basic bolt-action lineage to the earlier design work of the Japanese army officer Nariakira Arisaka around the turn of the twentieth century. Chambered in a new 7.7mm cartridge intended to give Japanese infantry a round more comparable in power to those used by other major armies, the Type 99 was meant to gradually replace the older 6.5mm Type 38 rifle as Japan's standard infantry arm, though wartime production pressures meant both rifles remained in simultaneous front-line service throughout the Second World War. Type 99 rifles produced later in the war show a marked decline in manufacturing quality and finish compared with earlier production, a change collectors and historians attribute to Japan's worsening wartime industrial resources and the pressure to maximize output over refinement in the conflict's final years.