Prior to the design of the Nambu, the only pistol in Japanese service was the Type 26 Revolver, which served with distinction during the First Sino-Japanese War (1894-1895). However, in the 1890s, semi-automatic pistol designs began to emerge, among them, the Mauser C96, which was influential in the production of the Nambu, as it uses the same locking mechanism as the C96, and the Nambu was designed shortly after a Japanese commission reported on European military developments.