Type 26 was the first introduced pistol in IJA. First it was the equipment for cavalry, but later it had been used as auxiliary weapon by other soldiers, for example, tank crews, suicide-attack boat crews etc. Type 26 was used until the end of WWII.
Kijiro Nambu is the designer of Nambu pistols. He was a general of IJA and developed Type 38 Heavy Machine Gun and Type 11 Light Machine Gun. In 1904, he developed the first model of Nambu pistols. Though it was not introduced in IJA, Nambu pistol was produced by a private enterprise and it was introduced by IJN in 1915.
In 1925, IJA also introduced the improved model of Nambu pistol as Type 14 Pistol. Type 14 is the almost same as the early model except some small improvements.
Nambu pistols were famous in its good accurancy. They were used by officers and MPs of IJA.
Though Nambu Pistols were good ones, they were too large for tank crews or airplane pilots. Therefore, IJA developed new pistol using the same bullet of Nambu Pistol.
Type 94 was small and light-weight pistol, though its accurancy was inferior to Nambu Pistol. Large numbers of Type 94 were produced during WWII.