Military production and imports of Japan
in World War II

Military production and imports of Japan in WW2

The annual Japanese armaments and military equipment production (excluding ammunition) and a comparison of the necessary strategic raw materials.

Picture: Japanes aircraft factory for Ki-43 Hayabusa fighters.

For the current version of the strategy game WW2 Total these figures are only interesting at the moment for the calculation of the Allied military production resources, which were required for the Pacific theatre against Japan.

Military production figures of Japan by weapon type

The Japanese annual production figures of the known main arms and military equipment (without ammunition) during WW2 from 1939-1945:

Type of weapon	1939	1940	1941	1942	1943	1944	1945 (8 months)	Overall	use in the strategy game for the calculation of:
Tanks (without light tanks and tankettes)	-	315	595	557	558	353	137	2,515	Tanks
Field and infantry guns	?	?	2,250	2,550	3,600	3,300	1,650	13,350	Artillery
Infantry weapons: machine-guns (without sub-machine guns)	?	?	?	?	?	?	?	380,000	Machine-guns
Infantry weapons: sub-machine guns	-	-	10,000				7,000	17,000	Sub-machine guns
Military trucks and lorries	?	38,056	46,389	35,386	approx. 24,000	20,356	1,758	165,945	Trucks
Fighter planes	?	?	1,080	2,935	7,147	13,811	5,474	30,447	Fighters
Bomber planes	?	?	1,461	2,433	4.189	5,100	1,934	15,117	Bombers
Reconnaissance planes	?	?	639	967	1,046	2,147	855	5,654	-
Training planes	?	?	1,489	2,171	2,871	6,147	2,523	15,201	-
Aircraft carriers (CV)	-	-	1	6	4	5	-	16	CV
Battleships (BB)	-	-	1	1	-	-	-	2	BB
Cruisers (CA)	-	-	-	4	3	2	-	9	BB
Destroyers (DD)	-	-	-	10	12	24	17	63	DD
Submarines	-	-	-	61	37	39	30	167	Subs
Merchant shipping tonnage	320,466	293,612	210,373	260,059 (Tankers: 20,361)	769,085 (Tankers: 169,491)	1,699,203 (Tankers: 754,889)	599,563 (Tankers: 351,028)	4,152,361	Transport ships

Picture: Construction of a Japanese aircraft carrier.

Annual strategic raw material production (m. metric tons)	1939	1940	1941	1942	1943	1944	1945
Coal	?	?	?	61.3	60.5	51.7	11.0
Ore	?	?	?	7.4	6.7	6.0	0.9
Steel	?	?	?	8.0	8.8	6.5	0.8
Aluminium (in 1,000 metric tons - especially important for aircraft production)	?	?	?	103.0	141.0	110.0	7.0

Import of raw materials

A vital sector of the decisive battle of production for the Japanese was that of import of raw materials, especially of oil.

Picture: This one will not arrive: skip-bombing by 5th US Air Force A-20s on a Japanese freighter.

Annual tonnage of Japanes tankers built, sunk and extant:

	Tonnage built	Tonnage sunk	Tonnage available at the end of the year
1941	-	-	578,000
1942	20,316	9,538	686,000
1943	254,927	169,491	873,000
1944	624,290	754,889	860,000
1945	85,651	351,028	266,948

Annual Japanese imports of key strategic raw materials and foodstuffs

in 1,000 metric tons:

	1941	1942	1943	1944	1945
Oil	1,090	1,360	1,880	650	-
Coal	6,460	6,390	5,180	2,630	548
Iron ore	6,310	4,700	4,300	2,150	341
Iron and steel	921	993	997	1,100	170
Scrap iron	246	50	43	21	12
Bauxite	150	305	909	376	15
Lead	86	11	25	17	4
Tin	5	4	27	23	4
Zinc	8	8	10	6	2
Raw rubber	68	31	42	31	18
Total strategic raw material imports	15,344	13,852	13,413	7,004	1,114
Food: rice	2,110	2,250	990	652	201
Food: peas and beans	546	684	276	?	?
Overall	18,000	16,786	14,679	7,656	1,315