As part of a drive to increase awareness of the importance of both military and commercial aviation in 1920s Japan, the Imperial Maritime Defense Volunteer Association ordered two light passenger aircraft from Kawasaki.
These aircraft, based on the Type 88 military reconnaissance design, were to be loaned to the Asahi Shimbun newspaper, which was sponsoring a Tokyo-Osaka air service.
Its pilot sat in an open cockpit just behind the upper wing trailing edge, ahead of an enclosed, windowed, four seat passenger cabin which could be reconfigured for mailplane or photo-reconnaissance duties.
Its V-strut braced tailplane was mounted on top of the fuselage and carried roughly rectangular elevators with cut-outs for rudder movement.
Its landing wheels were on a single axle and the partly-faired legs and trailing drag struts were mounted on the lower fuselage longerons.
[1] They were briefly operated between Tokyo and Osaka by Tozo Teiki Kokuka (East-West Regular Air Transport Association) until Nihon Koku Yuso began flying the same route.