History and Development
The "Eight-Eight Fleet" concept originated in post-Russo-Japanese War period with the 1907 Imperial Defense Policy, which was a settlement reached by the competing Army and Navy factions of the Japanese government.
The Naval faction, inspired by the Mahanian doctrine of Satō Tetsutarō, argued that Japanese security could only be guaranteed by a strong navy. Satō argued that to ensure security, Japan should be capable of defeating the power which represented the greatest potential threat. In the 1907 Imperial National Defense Policy, Japan’s military focus shifted away from the defeated Imperial Russia and towards the United States as the primary threat to Japan's future security. In Japanese minds, the United States had proven to be an aggressive expansionist power in Asia, with its annexation of the Kingdom of Hawaii and colonization of the newly formed First Philippine Republic. The Open Door Policy towards China was in conflict with Japanese aspirations on the Asian mainland, and its immigration policies were perceived as an indication of American racial enmity towards the Japanese.
Based on a theoretical United States Navy strength of 25 battleships and cruisers, Japanese naval theoreticians postulated that Japan would need a fleet of at least eight first-line battleships and eight cruisers for parity in the Pacific Ocean. When Naval Minister Admiral Yamamoto Gonnohyoe presented the budget request for this fleet to the Diet of Japan, the amount was more than twice that of the entire Japanese national budget at the time.
The Eight-Eight Fleet policy was controversial because of the enormous cost of battleships, and only once was authorization given by the Diet of Japan for a building program which would have reached the "Eight-Eight Fleet" ideal. To complicate matters further, while the "Eight-Eight Fleet" plan lasted over a decade, the ships required for it changed; by 1920 the ships which had been ordered in 1910 to start to fulfill the plan were becoming obsolete.
Various alternative plans were discussed, including a reduction in the plan to "Eight-four Fleet" program, of later to an "Eight-Six Fleet" program.
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