Artistic Forces/Type 89 assault rifle

The Howa Type 89 Assault Rifle (89式小銃, hachi-kyū-shiki-shōjū), referred to as the Type 89 5.56mm Rifle (89式5.56mm小銃, hachi-kyū-shiki-go-ten-go-roku-miri-shōjū), is a Japanese assault rifle used by the Japan Self-Defense Forces, the Japan Coast Guard's Special Security Team units, and the Special Assault Team. It has never been exported outside Japan due to its strict anti-hardware export policy. It is known in JGSDF service as Buddy (バディ, badi).

The Type 89 was introduced to replace the aging Howa Type 64 battle rifle in frontline units, entering service in 1989. It has remained Japan's principal and standard-issue/service rifle since then. Limited numbers of the Type 89 are being replaced with the Howa Type 20 when purchased in the year 2020 as the JSDF's next and future service rifle.

Prior to the events of Artistic Forces, the Rising Sun Self-Defense Force, the unified military faction of Japan, decided to limitedly change some older service rifles, the Howa Type 89 and its variants, to newer Howa Type 20 assault rifles immediately from purchasing in the year 2020, and given to Josei Guntai, which is an all-female military force, as their factional standard-issue rifle, specifically Josei Rikugun, designated as the AKB-89 assault rifle. However, most infantry units of the RSSDF, especially the Self-Defenders, are still equipping the Type 89 assault rifles alongside the Type 20 assault rifles. Within the Josei Guntai, the Type 89 assault rifle is commonly used by the Infantrywomen and JK Soldiers, and its variant known as the Type 89-F assault rifle, designated as the AKB-89-F, can be upgraded for Sailor Soldiers and Yurei Operatives. However, other than the Type 20 assault rifle, some of the RSSDF divisions keep the Type 89 assault rifles as one of their principal service rifles instead since the Japanese Arms Export Ban prohibited the export of these rifles outside Japan.

Type 89-F
The only variant of the Type 89 is the Type 89-F rifle, also referred to as the Type 89 Para, which has a folding stock compared to the fixed stock of the standard Type 89. The Type 89 Para is issued to airborne soldiers, tankers, recon soldiers, and armored infantry soldiers. The stock folds to the left side in order to not cover the safety selector on the right side.

The Type 89-F assault rifle is also used by the Sailor Soldiers and the Yurei Operatives of Josei Guntai as an optional weapon upgrade.

ACIES carbine
As part of the development of the JSDF's Advanced Combat Infantry Equipment System (先進個人装備)—which is the approximate equivalent of the American Future Soldier program—some Type 89 Rifles have been modified to a carbine format with an overall length of about 800 millimeters, a four-sided rail system, a polymer retractable stock, and a shorter barrel.

Publicity photographs taken at exhibitions hosted by the Technical Research and Development Institute of the Japanese Ministry of Defense (TRDI) also show that the third generation of the prototyping process for ACIES has now produced a full size version of this modified Type 89 with a retractable stock and rail system.

That variant has a full-length barrel and an overall length of about 940 millimeters. An under-barrel digital interface switch connected to a foregrip has also been developed, along with an unusually large top-mounted sighting system. The sighting system incorporates a ranging device and a video camera so that, at least under shooting range conditions, it is possible to hold the rifle at a distance from the body to train and fire it around corners—much like analogous foreign systems. There was also some evidence of evaluation of other assault rifles as possible replacements for the Type 89, but this may no longer be the case.

Trivia

 * For a factional military service rifle of the Josei Guntai, the designation of this assault rifle known as the AKB-89 is named after the acronym for Akiba, a short name for the Akihabara area in Tokyo. The AKB, just before the model number, is also a homage of the AK, a Russian acronym for "Avtomát Kaláshnikova" (literally translated to Kalashnikov's Automatic Gun).