Concerned by reports of Chinese purchases of Vickers 6-Ton tanks and rising tensions with the Soviet Red Army along the Manchurian border, the IJA issued a requirement for an anti-tank rifle in 1935. The Nagoya Arsenal submitted a weapon derived from their copy of the Hotchkiss M1929 machine gun while the Kokura Arsenal submitted a new design using a 20×125mm cartridge. The first round of testing in March 1936 was not satisfactory and both guns were returned to their designers to rectify problems encountered during the trials. The Kokura Arsenal built eight prototypes for the second round of trials held at the Army Infantry School in 1937, after which the IJA rejected the Nagoya weapon. It identified several problems that needed to fixed and a batch of fifty guns was built for operational trials in 1938. After another round of trials in December at the infantry and cavalry schools, the weapon was accepted as the Type 97 Automatic Cannon.