Azuma | Tier 9 | Cruiser

Shortly before the beginning of World War II, Japan found out that the U.S. had started designing Alaska-class large cruisers. They almost immediately began designing projects for this type of ship to counter the American cruisers. The ships of this project were similar in architecture to the Yamato-class battleships and carried nine new 310 mm guns in three turrets. The development was stopped in November 1941 and eventually canceled after the Battle of Midway.