It was designed by the Aeronautical Research Institute of Tokyo Imperial University and built by the Tokyo Gas and Electric Industry (also known as Gasuden), to break the world record for longest flight, setting a closed circuit world record of 11,651.011 km (7,240 mi) in March 1938.

In 1931, the Aeronautical Research Institute of the Tokyo Imperial University commenced studies to design an aircraft to break the world closed-circuit distance record, gaining a grant from the Japanese Diet or parliament to finance the project.

Initial design was completed in August 1934,[1] and the Tokyo Gas and Electric Company (also known as Gasuden) was selected to build the aircraft, despite the fact that it had only limited resources, and had previously only built small numbers of wooden light aircraft.

[2] The design produced by the Aeronautical Research Institute and Gasuden was a single-engined low-wing cantilever monoplane with retractable undercarriage.

[4] The first two attempts at breaking the record, on 13 November 1937 and 10 May 1938 were unsuccessful, owing to undercarriage problems and an autopilot failure respectively.