The Type 2 gun tank Ho-I (二式砲戦車 ホイ, Ni-shiki hōsensha Ho-I) was a derivative of the Type 97 Chi-Ha medium tanks of the Imperial Japanese Army in World War II.
Similar in concept to the early variants of the German Panzer IV, it was designed as a self-propelled howitzer to provide the close-in fire support for standard Japanese medium tanks with additional firepower against enemy anti-tank fortifications.
[2] Design work on the Type 2 Ho-I began in 1937, after experience in Manchukuo taught Japanese war planners that an armored vehicle with a larger weapon would be useful against fortified enemy positions such as pillboxes, against which the standard low-velocity 57mm and high-velocity 47mm tank guns were ineffective.
The gun could fire an assortment of ammunition, including a 6.6kg (14.5lb) armor-piercing shell and had a muzzle velocity of 445mps.
[1][5] As with other tanks and self-propelled guns, production was hampered by material shortages, and by the bombing of Japan in World War II.