This necessitated the development of a new weapon to replace the outclassed Type 38, and finally standardize on a single rifle cartridge.

Late war rifles are often called "last ditch" or "substitute standard" due to their crudeness of finish.

During the Korean War, approximately 126,500 short and 6,650 long Type 99 rifles were re-chambered under American supervision at the Tokyo arsenal to fire the standard .30-06 Springfield cartridge.

These rifles were fitted with lengthened magazine wells and had small notches cut in the top of the receivers to accommodate the .30-06 round's 1/3 inch greater length.

After 1946, the Republic of China re-chambered an unknown number of Type 99 rifles to fire the 8×57 IS cartridge.,[2] as well as the 7.62×39mm cartridge, which were converted using SKS barrels.

In the case of a firearm, "model" is a more accurate interpretation of the Shiki (式) character, but the word "type" has become well-established by collectors for decades.

To gain the superior hitting power of the larger 7.7mm cartridge, several 6.5mm Type 38 rifles were modified for the new round.

[3] It utilized a cock-on-closing action and an unusual safety mechanism, operated by pressing in the large knurled disk at the rear of the bolt with the palm of the hand and rotating it in a 1/8 clockwise turn, which is often misunderstood by Western shooters who are used to the Mauser's thumb lever safety.

The "last ditch" rifles are usually distinguished by their crudeness: poorly finished stock, wooden buttplate held in with nails, lack of an upper forward handguard, very obvious tooling marks in the metal, lack of the monopod, non-adjusting fixed sights and an unfinished bolt knob and handle.

It is possible that reports of Type 99 rifles blowing up were simply the results of soldiers testing captured weapons.

Only about 38,000 were produced, 8,000 at Nagoya and 30,000 at Toyo Kogyo between summer of 1940 and spring of 1941 when production was switched to the much more common new Type 99 short rifle of which millions were made.

[11] Although the Arisaka rifle has never been exported to the United States, many are available as thousands have been brought home by US Military personnel returning from the Pacific theater.