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The HOWA 5.56 is a rifle developed for the Japan Ground Self-Defense Force. It is designed by Howa and is the successor to the Howa Type 89.

Development
In August 2014, it was reported that the JGSDF was looking for a new rifle to replace the Type 89. Initial candidates to replace the Type 89's include the Heckler & Koch G36, Heckler & Koch HK416, Steyr AUG, FN SCAR, and a new rifle developed by Howa.

In 2015, the Ministry of Defense (Japan) procured various foreign made rifles for testing purposes and contracted with Howa to test their domestic rifle. The procurement contract is shown as : The small arms "S type, 516 and 716" are the SIG516 and SIG716, "G type, V" is the G36V, "HK type" is likely the HK416 or HK417, and "SC type, H and L" is the SCAR-H and SCAR-L. It is unknown what rifle is small arms "M type".

At the same time, Howa filed a patent on the design for their rifle on 15 May 2015. Furthermore, the design was patented under Japan's Design Act (Article 14) which allows the design to be kept in secret for up to three years. An updated design was later patented under the same law on 25 September 2015.

In 2018, the Ministry of Defense procured another batch of small arms for testing. The procurement contract is shown as :

The rifles were later revealed to be the HOWA 5.56, HK416 and SCAR-L following an announcement on 6 December 2019 that the HOWA 5.56 has been selected over the other two rifles. A follow up report stated that two evaluations were conducted on the rifle in 2018. The first evaluation focused on the weapon's performance on land such as effective range and accuracy. The second evaluation compared the weapon's performance, logistics and cost to the other two rifles. Since all three rifles satisfied the JGSDF's requirements, the HOWA 5.56 was selected due to having the highest score based on the second evaluation. The unit price for mass production is stated to be at ¥280,000 including maintenance and operation costs. The estimated life cycle cost is ¥43.9 billion if 150,000 units are procured.

The first batch of rifles (3,283 units) were purchased for ¥900 million in the 2020 defense budget.

Design
The Howa 5.56 is said to possess better environment durability, fire power and extensibility over the Type 89. One key difference the HOWA 5.56 has over the Type 89 is the addition of multiple rails; making it the first Japanese rifle to have this feature as a standard design. The magazine is also believe to be STANAG compatible. The rifle features a telescoping stock, an ambidextrous safety selector, and appears to operate via short-stroke piston.

Compared to the original design, the current design of the HOWA 5.56 retains much of the same characteristics with only some notable changes. The barrel length has been shortened slightly and the hand guard has been redesigned to feature an M-LOK rail design. The side rails have been extended, fold-able iron sights were added and the stock features a shoulder pad similarly seen on the HK416.

Because of the radical and modern design shift the HOWA 5.56 has over its predecessor, there is some speculations on how the rifle got its design. One speculation is that the design was possibly influenced by various foreign made rifles; as Japan has experience procuring and utilizing a number of foreign rifles, i.e. the Special Forces Group. As such, the design of the HOWA 5.56 has been compared to the FN SCAR, CZ 805 BREN and Heckler & Koch HK433  ; with some observers believing the rifle possesses similar dimensions and functionality to the SCAR. Another design influence is speculated to come from the experience Howa has gained from developing the ACIES variants of the Type 89.