Combat experience in the Manchurian Incident of 1931 and subsequent actions in Manchuria and northern China reaffirmed to the Japanese army the utility of machine guns in providing covering fire for advancing infantry.

However, the open hopper design of the Type 11 allowed dust and grit to enter into the gun, which was liable to jam in muddy or dirty conditions due to issues with poor dimensional tolerances.

[15] The major differences from the Type 11 were the top-mounted curved detachable box replacing the problematic ammunition hopper with an overhead magazine and the removal of the receiver-mounted oiler (though cartridges needed to be lubricated before they were loaded into the magazines), the latter made possible the incorporation of a quick-change barrel to avoid overheating; the Type 96 also features a unique Nambu-designed bolt lock, in the form of a square frame that moves up and down to lock and unlock the barrel.

[20] Like the Type 11, the gun doesn't handle standard 6.5×50mm Arisaka rounds without malfunctions, requiring the use of special ammunition (marked with a circled "G" on the cartons) to ensure proper extraction of spent cases.

[19][21] Parts were usually non-interchangeable, each gun being hand-fitted and manufacturers introducing minor changes to their designs, such as flash suppressor, cooling fins, and ejection port covers, without any regard for standardization; an issue that also plagued its successor, the Type 99.

[25] It was supplanted by the more reliable Type 99 light machine gun, which fired a larger 7.7 mm round which had greater stopping power.

[26][27] According to US military manuals, reports of Japanese soldiers making use of Thompson submachine guns may have originated from the fact that the Type 96 could be hip fired.