page_title: Japanese tanks of World War II
section_title: Type 4 Chi-To medium tank
hierarchical_section_title: Japanese tanks of World War II / Japanese designs / Type 4 Chi-To medium tank
context_page_description: The Imperial Japanese Army initially purchased foreign tanks for evaluation during World War I, and began developing its own indigenous designs during the late 1920s.
  Due to the war with China, Japan produced a large number of tanks. Although initially the Japanese used tanks to good effect in their campaigns, full-scale armored warfare did not occur in the Pacific and Southeast Asian theaters as it did in Europe, and tank development was neglected in favor of naval activities. The best Japanese designs were never used in combat as they were kept back in expectation of defending the Japanese Home Islands.
context_section_description: The Type 4 medium tank Chi-To (四式中戦車 チト, Yonshiki chūsensha Chi-To) was one of several new medium and heavy tanks developed by the Imperial Japanese Army towards the end of World War II. It was the most advanced Japanese wartime tank to reach the production phase.
  The Chi-To was a thirty-ton, all-welded tank with a maximum armor thickness of about 75 mm. It was much larger than the Type 97 Chi-Ha, with a longer, wider, tall chassis, supported by seven road wheels. The main armament, a Type 5 75 mm tank gun was housed in a large powered, well-armoured hexagonal gun turret. The main gun's 850 metres per second (2,800 ft/s) muzzle velocity gave it an armor penetration of 75 millimeters at 1,000 meters. The tank had a Type 97 heavy tank machine gun mounted in the hull and a ball mount on the side of the turret for a second one. Two Type 4 Chi-To tanks are known to be completed prior to the end of the war. Neither of the completed tanks saw combat use.
caption: Type 4 Chi-To
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