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Hello,

Yes, these plans dated back to 1933/34, when the Japanese had determined to leave the treaty system. Those with the greatest influence and power were of the Big Gun (or Fleet = Kantai ha) faction, and it was felt that by building such vessels--the original concept was for five (5) 20"-gunned 30kt behemoths--the IJN would jump ahead of the USN in "a single bound"...

Detailed warship building plans over a ten year period--and largely predicated upon the gains in strategic resources acquired in Manchuria/Manchukuo in 1932--were first proposed in 1933. The (wishful/delusional) thinking being that the IJN could build up their relative strength to a point that would dissuade the US from another naval arms race. This was before the economic/industrial disappointments re the Manchukuo experiment were recognized. Thus, in October 1935 it was argued that the IJN could maintain 70-80% parity with the USN for a full decade, and this would be enough to deter the Americans from confrontation.

According to what passed for thinking in the IJN at the time, it was felt that building Super-Sized individual warships would be less expensive in the longterm than building the treaty navy...

First schemes for what later became the YAMATO-class were more or less in place by late 1934, IIRC. But, what is interesting is how early these ideas were being developed. And how much faith the IJN planners placed in them.