Firearms of Japan Firearm s were introduced to Japan in the 13th century , but saw little use . European firearms were introduced in 1543 , and intense development followed , with strong local manufacture during the period of conflicts of the late 16th century . Japan then almost completely abandoned the further development and military use of firearms during a period of seclusion known as " sakoku " . The usage of firearms in Japan would start again after 1854 with the resumption of contacts with the West and the accumulation of conflicts from that period . Tetsuho . Due to its proximity with China , Japan had long been familiar with gunpowder . Firearms seem to have first appeared in Japan around 1270 , as primitive metal tubes invented in China and called " teppō " ( 鉄砲 lit . " iron cannon " ) seem to have been introduced in Japan as well . These weapons were very basic , as they had no trigger or sights , and could not bear comparison with the more advanced European weapons which were introduced in Japan more than 250 years later . Tanegashima ( matchlock ) . The first documented introduction of the matchlock which became known as the was through the Portuguese in 1543 . The " tanegashima " seems to have been based on " snap matchlocks " that were produced in the armory of Goa India , which was captured by the Portuguese in 1510 . The name " tanegashima " came from the island where a Chinese junk with Portuguese adventurers on board was driven to anchor by a storm . The lord of the Japanese island " Tanegashima Tokitaka " ( 1528 – 1579 ) purchased two matchlock muskets from the Portuguese and put a swordsmith to work in copying the matchlock barrel and firing mechanism . Within a few years the use of the " tanegashima " in battle forever changed the way war was fought in Japan . From 1560 , firearms were used in large battles in Japan . In his memoirs published in 1614 , the Portuguese adventurer turned author Mendes Pinto placed himself in that first landing party , although this claim has been roundly discredited and in fact contradicts his claims to be simultaneously in Burma at the time . However , Pinto does appear to have visited Tanegashima soon thereafter . Sengoku period . Japan was at war during the Sengoku period between 1467 and 1573 , as feudal lords vied for supremacy . Matchlock guns were used extensively and had a decisive role in warfare . In 1549 , Oda Nobunaga ordered 500 matchlocks to be made for his armies . The benefits of firearms were still relatively questionable however compared to other weapons . At the time , guns were still rather primitive and cumbersome . According to one estimate in 16th century Japan , an archer could fire 15 arrows in the time a gunner would take to load , charge , and shoot a firearm . Effective range also was only 80 to 100 meters , and at that distance a bullet could easily bounce off armour . Also , matchlocks were vulnerable to humid or rainy conditions as the powder would become damp . However firearms could be manned effectively by farmers or non - samurai low - ranking soldiers . The Japanese soon worked on various techniques to improve the effectiveness of their guns . They developed serial firing technique to create a continuous rain of bullets on the enemy . They also developed bigger calibers to increase lethal power . Protective boxes in lacquerware were invented to be able to fire matchlocks in the rain , as well as systems to accurately fire weapons at night by keeping fixed angles thanks to measured strings . As a result , in the year 1567 Takeda Shingen announced that " Hereafter , the guns will be the most important arms . Therefore decrease the number of spears per unit , and have your most capable men carry guns " . At the Battle of Nagashino in 1575 , 3 , 000 arquebusiers helped win the battle , firing by volleys of 1 , 000 at a time , and concealed across a river and breastwork to effectively stop enemy infantry and cavalry charges while being protected . Japan became so enthusiastic about the new weapons that it possibly overtook every European country in absolute numbers produced . Japan also used the guns in the Japanese invasion of Korea in 1592 , in which about a quarter of the invasion force of 160 , 000 were gunners . They were extremely successful at first and managed to capture Seoul just 18 days after their landing at Pusan . Edo Period . The internal war in Japan was won by Tokugawa Ieyasu , who established the Tokugawa Shogunate , a powerful entity that would maintain peace and prosperity in Japan for the following 250 years . From the mid - 17th century , Japan decided to close itself to interaction with the West through its policy of Sakoku . Contrary to popular belief , this did not lead to Japan " giving up the gun . " If anything , the gun was used less frequently because the Edo Period did not have many large - scale conflicts in which a gun would be of use . Oftentimes the sword was simply the more practical weapon in the average small - scale Edo Period conflicts . Nevertheless , there is evidence of around 200 gunsmiths in Japan by the end of the Edo Period , indicating that the gun was not in any sense relinquished . Late Edo period . A few Japanese started to study and experiment with recent Western firearms from the beginning of the 19th century especially as a means to repel the visits of foreign ships , such as the British frigate HMS " Phaeton " in 1808 . Through the process of Rangaku ( the studying of Western science through the Dutch ) , airguns were developed by Kunitomo Ikkansai c . 1820 – 1830 . From 1828 , experiments were made with flintlock mechanisms . The Nagasaki samurai Takashima Shūhan ( 高島秋帆 ) started to import flintlock guns from the Netherlands known as Gewehr from the 1840s . He made the first modern Western military demonstration for the Tokugawa Shogunate , in Tokumarugahara ( North of Edo ) on 27 June 1841 . With the arrival of Commodore Perry in 1854 and the inescapable opening of the country to trade , rapid efforts were made at reequipping Japan with modern fireams . Old matchlock weapons were recovered and converted to flintlock mechanisms . Boshin war . The mounting civil war in Japan and the opposition of various feudal lords against the Bakufu during the Late Tokugawa Shogunate led to serious rearming until the 1867 Boshin war . At the same time technological progress was extremely fast in the West , with the introduction of the rifle , breech - loading and even repeating firearms , so that Japanese armies were equipped with composite technologies , with weapons imported from countries as varied as France , Germany , The Netherlands , Britain or the United States , and coexisting with traditional Tanegashima guns . During the Boshin war , most Shogunate vassal troops used Gewehr smoothbore guns . These guns were rather ancient and had limited capabilities , with an effective lethal range of about 50 meters , and a firing rate of about 2 rounds per minute . Much more effective Minié rifle s were also used by the armies directly under the command of the Shogun , the Bakufu troops . The Daimyo of Nagaoka , an ally of the Shogun , possessed two Gatling guns and several thousand modern rifles . The Shogunate is known to have placed an order for 30 , 000 modern Dreyse needle guns in 1866 . In 1867 , orders were placed for 40 , 000 state - of - the - art French Chassepot rifles , a part of which reached Edo by year end . Antiquated Tanegashima matchlock guns are also known to have been used by the Bakufu however . Imperial troops mainly used Minié rifles , which were much more accurate , lethal , and had a much longer range than the smoothbore Gewehr guns , although , being also muzzle - loading , they were similarly limited to two shots per minute . Improved breech - loading mechanisms , such as the Snider , developing a rate of about ten shots a minute , are known to have been used by troops of the Tosa Domain against the Shogunate ' s Shōgitai , at the Battle of Ueno in July 1868 . In the second half of the conflict , in the northeast theater , Tosa Province troops are known to have used American - made Spencer repeating rifle s . American - made handguns were also popular , such as the 1863 Smith & Wesson Army No 2 , which was imported to Japan by the Scottish trader Thomas Blake Glover and used by the Satsuma forces . Modern period . For some time after the Meiji Restoration , Japan continued to use imported weapons . The newly created Imperial Japanese Army used firearms intensively against more traditional samurai rebellious forces during the Satsuma rebellion in 1877 , with an average of 320 , 000 rounds of ammunition fired daily during the conflict . After the Satsuma rebellion , Japan relied extensively on the French Chassepot . Japan finally developed its own model , the Murata rifle , derived from the French Fusil Gras mle 1874 . This was Japan ' s first locally made service rifle , and was used from 1880 to 1898 . An industrial infrastructure , such as the Koishikawa arsenal had to be established to produce such new weapons . Later , Japan developed the very successful bolt action Arisaka series rifles , which was the Japanese service rifle until the end of World War II . Japan produced relatively few submachine gun s during World War II , the most numerous model was the Type 100 submachine gun of which 24 , 000 - 27 , 000 were produced , compared , for example , with the British Sten of which millions were produced . During the war , the Japanese worked on a copy of the American semi - automatic M1 Garand ( the Type 5 rifle ) but only a few hundred were made before the end of the war and it did not enter service . After the end of the war , the dissolution of the Imperial Japanese Army , and the establishment of the Japan Self - Defense Forces in 1947 , Japan relied on M1 Garand rifles provided by the United States . In the mid - 1950s however , Japan ' s Defense Agency started to develop battle rifle s of its own , such as the Howa Type 64 and assault rifle s like the Howa Type 89 which has been gradually replacing the former .