Type 1 Machine Gun
- Category
- Machine Gun
- Barrel
- 607 mm
- Weight, empty
- 15.24 kg
- Introduced
- 1942
About
What it is, and why it matters
The Type 1 Machine Gun is a Japanese gas-operated, air-cooled machine gun adopted by the Imperial Japanese Army in 1942 and chambered in 7.7x58mm Arisaka. It is a lightened development of the Type 92 heavy machine gun, retaining the older weapon's basic mechanism while scaling down its components, deleting the heavy barrel jacket, and adding a quick-change barrel to cut total system weight by roughly half. Like the Type 92 it feeds from rigid 30-round metal strips inserted from the left and is fired from a tripod. Despite formal adoption, wartime material shortages and the continued acceptability of the Type 92 kept it from large-scale production, and very few examples survive.
Issued the 'Type 1' designation for the imperial year 2601 (1941), the gun was meant to lighten the squad's burden by shedding nearly half the Type 92's weight, yet it arrived too late and in too few numbers to displace the older 'woodpecker' that had defined Japanese heavy machine gunnery across the Pacific.
Designation 'Type 1' references the Japanese imperial year 2601 (1941), though formal adoption came in November 1942. Unlike the Type 92, it was chambered only for the rimless 7.7x58mm Arisaka cartridge rather than accepting both rimmed and rimless rounds. Production has been attributed to the Hitachi weapons factory in addition to Kokura Arsenal.
Specification
Everything measured
IdentityWhat it is, who built it and when.
- Manufacturer
- Kokura Arsenal
- Category
- Machine Gun
- Country
- Japan
- Status
- Discontinued
- Produced
- 1942 to 1945
DimensionsAs issued, without a magazine or an optic.
- Barrel
- 607 mm
- Overall length
- 965 mm
- Weight, empty
- 15.24 kg
ActionHow it cycles, what trips it, and what feeds it.
- Action
- Gas operated
- Firing mechanism
- Hammer fired
- Trigger
- Single action
- Capacity
- 30
MaterialsEach swatch is the material itself, not a colour chosen to stand for it.
- Frame
- Steel
- Barrel
- Steel
- Stock
- Wood
- Finish
- Blued
BallisticsFrom the service cartridge, not a handload.
- Muzzle velocity
- 730 m/s
- Muzzle energy
- 3315 J
- Effective range
- 1100 m
- Maximum range
- 4100 m
- Rate of fire
- 500 rpm
Trajectory
What the round does downrange
Solved from the muzzle figures and the bullet. The dashed rule is the effective range on the record, and the crosses are the steps the solver returned.
No load solved for this record yetThe flight path is computed from a cartridge and a bullet. This record has no ammunition filed against its chambering, so there is nothing to solve.
Features
What it has
What the record lists as fitted, drawn from the catalogue.
Air cooled
Quick change barrel
Tripod mounted- Metal feed strip
No barrel jacket
Flash hider
Standing
How it compares
Each figure against the firearms of the same type and cartridge that record it, or of the same type where that cartridge has too few. Positions are read to the nearest tenth.
| Measurement | This firearm | Median | Position |
|---|---|---|---|
| Empty weightAmong 261 machine guns | 15.24 kg | 10.50 kg | Heavier than about 70% |
| Overall lengthAmong 260 machine guns | 965 mm | 1156 mm | Shorter than about 90% |
| Barrel lengthAmong 257 machine guns | 607 mm | 605 mm | Near the median |
| Magazine capacityAmong 222 machine guns | 30 | 50 | Holds fewer rounds than about 60% |
Answers
Questions about the Type 1 Machine Gun
How much does the Type 1 Machine Gun weigh?
The Type 1 Machine Gun weighs 15.24 kg (33.60 lb) empty.
What caliber is the Type 1 Machine Gun?
The Type 1 Machine Gun is chambered in 7.7x58mm Arisaka.
How many rounds does the Type 1 Machine Gun hold?
The Type 1 Machine Gun holds 30 rounds.
How long is the Type 1 Machine Gun?
The Type 1 Machine Gun is 965 mm (38.0 in) long overall, with a 607 mm (23.9 in) barrel.
Who makes the Type 1 Machine Gun?
The Type 1 Machine Gun is made by Kokura Arsenal (Japan). It was designed by Kokura Arsenal.
When was the Type 1 Machine Gun introduced?
The Type 1 Machine Gun was introduced in 1942 and discontinued in 1945.
How does the Type 1 Machine Gun operate?
The Type 1 Machine Gun uses a gas operated action, and its firing mechanism is hammer fired.
Compatibility
Which parts fit this firearm
Studio
Every part that mounts on this, resolved
Not a list the maker typed out: the answer comes from the mounts this firearm exposes and the interface each part needs, so it stays right when either one changes.
- Every part that mounts on any firearm in the catalogue
- Interface standards, platforms and fit overrides
- The same answers through the API and the MCP server
Requires a signed-in GunSpec account on the Studio plan. The answer is computed per part, so it is not part of the public record.
Provenance
What the record holds
Every figure above was taken from one of these pages. The confidence reflects how much of the record came from a page a claim can be checked against.
In service
- Imperial Japanese Army
- 1942
- Indonesian National Armed Forces
- Indonesia
Provenance
Confidence in this record
78%
Stockists
Where to buy
Offers link straight to the shop. GunSpec never takes the order.
No shop has listed this firearm yet
Stock and prices come from the shops themselves. If you sell this firearm, you can list it and it appears here.
List a firearmMCP
Ask an assistant about it
The same record, reached the way a person asks for it rather than the way a program does.
Ask GunSpec
Works with
Point an MCP client at GunSpec and it answers from the catalogue rather than from memory. A free key covers the read tools.
API
The call that returns this record
The same fields, in the same units, from the same endpoint the page reads.
curl --request GET \ --url 'https://api.gunspec.io/v1/firearms/type-1-mg' \ --header 'X-API-Key: your_key'{ "id": "type-1-mg", "name": "Type 1 Machine Gun", "manufacturer": { "id": "kokura-arsenal", "name": "Kokura Arsenal", "countryCode": "JP", "foundedYear": 1933, "website": null, "logoUrl": null, "description": null, "status": null, "defunctYear": null, "stateOwned": null, "makesFirearms": null, "parentId": null, "predecessorId": null, "createdAt": "2026-04-05 22:24:37", "updatedAt": "2026-04-05 22:24:37", "version": "4fc0b3c5a8a1d21d1e7661dfc33f94c8da8ce9b1e3bcd75a196ccfadd98e7a3f" }, "category": { "id": "machine-gun", "name": "Machine Gun", "description": "Fully automatic firearms for sustained fire" }, "country_of_origin": "JP", "year_introduced": 1942, "barrel_length_mm": 607, "weight_empty_g": 15240, "action_type": "gas_operated"}