The Type 1 Ho-Ki was produced as a result of a request from the army for a heavy armored artillery tractor, which could also serve as a personnel transport in order to increase the motorization and cross-country capabilities of the land forces.

[5] In addition, with the priorities of Japanese military production focusing on combat aircraft, warships and other offensive weaponry, most of the experimental APC and AFV designs never made it past the prototype stage.

By the time the Type 1 Ho-Ki entered regular production in 1944, raw materials were in very short supply, and much of Japan's industrial infrastructure had been destroyed by American bombing.

[9][10] The Type 1 Ho-Ki had an unusual silhouette, in that the driver's cab did not extend across the front of the hull, but stopped about mid-way across the center line.

The crew consisted of a driver and commander, with transport capacity of 13 or 14 men, and the maximum armor thickness was 6 mm for the front hull.

[14][15] The Type 1 Ho-Ki was not normally armed, but provision was made for mounting machine guns to the rear of the driver on the sides of the troop compartment.

[2][16] Units of the 2nd Tank Division were reassigned to the Japanese Fourteenth Area Army and sent to the Philippines, where it was deployed on the main island of Luzon.