page_title: Japanese tanks of World War II
section_title: Type 89 Chi-Ro medium tank
hierarchical_section_title: Japanese tanks of World War II / Japanese designs / Type 89 Chi-Ro medium tank
caption_attribution_description: Japanese light tanks moving toward Manila on the day the city was entered.
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 IJA decided that the Type 87 Chi-I was too heavy and slow to be used as its main tank, so the Type 89 Chi-Ro was developed to overcome these shortcomings. The new design weighed 12.8 tons and used stronger and lighter steel plate instead of the Type 87's iron armor.  Armament was a Type 90 57 mm gun, along with two Type 91 6.5mm machine guns. The Type 89 prototype was completed in 1929, with production starting in 1931, making this the first tank to be mass-produced in Japan. The designation is also known as the Type 89 "I-Go" and sometimes transliterated "Yi-Go".
  The Type 89 had two variants - the Kō ("A"), which used a water-cooled gasoline engine, and the Otsu ("B"), with an air-cooled diesel engine and improved frontal armor. Of the two versions made, a total of 113 Kō tanks and 291 Otsu tanks were produced. The Type 89 served with Japanese infantry divisions and first saw combat use in China during the First Battle of Shanghai in 1932. It was deployed for operations in the Second Sino-Japanese War, beginning in 1937. However, by the late 1930s the Type 89 was shown to be fast becoming obsolete. The IJA therefore began a program to develop a replacement tank for infantry support and with the out-break of war with China, the peacetime budgetary limitations were removed. The Mitsubishi "Chi-Ha" model was thereby accepted as the new Type 97 medium tank by the army as the replacement for the Type 89.
caption: Type 89 Chi-Ro advancing towards Manila, Philippines, January 1942
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