In fact, the Type-99 was a development of the Type-96, introduced in 1936.This used an action developed from the Taisho-11 of 1922 which was based on a French Hotchkiss design.

But you're right : the T-96 'borrowed' a lot of external features ( such as butt, rear sight, box magazine, etc ) from Czech ZB machine guns which the Japanese had captured from the Chinese.

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