Messerschmitt Me 210 in Japan

According to Akimoto:

The Messerschmitt Me 210A twin-engine, two-seat fighter-bomber (serial number 2350), imported by the Army along with the Fw 190, began assembly at Kawasaki's Akashi factory in January 1943, and its maiden flight was conducted in May of the same year by pilot "シューテア" (the name is given in katakana. Google reads this as "Schuteer" or "Schulter". Leave a comment if you know the correct spelling of the German test pilot). During military testing, it made an emergency landing, damaging the landing gear struts, engine mount, and propeller, and was subsequently sold to Kawasaki for use as research equipment.

A key feature of this aircraft was its remotely controlled turrets, each equipped with a 13mm autocannon on one side of the fuselage, in addition to the fixed armament in the nose. Its bomb load could reach a maximum of 1,000 kg. While the innovative remote control mechanism for the turrets and the dive brakes attracted attention, the former was not highly regarded for its practicality, and the latter was deemed too precise to be domestically produced. Furthermore, its performance did not meet expectations.

The Japanese Wiki says it was a "Me 210 A-1", the English Wiki disagrees and says it was a "Me 210A-2" and adds:

"received one aircraft bought in Germany for tests and delivered by blockade runner. It was operated by the Testing unit of the First Tachikawa Air Army Arsenal."

An on-line source also mentions:

"The Japanese army and the Kawasaki plant in 1942 were interested in a new German heavy fighter/bomber due to the fact that the Japanese did not have any similar design. The Japanese commission, which was sent to Germany to bring the Me 210 A-1 aircraft, was impressed by this aircraft. Therefore, this aircraft was purchased and in January 1943 it was sent to Japan, probably on board the U-180 submarine.... Due to the lack of spare parts and the inability to deliver the appropriate parts from Germany, the aircraft was scrapped. However, Japanese designers used the technologies used in the Me 210 to develop the Ki-93 aircraft, and it was planned to use similar automatic cannons in the planned modernization of the Ki-74."

I could not find any reference to the Japanese using Me210 technologies on the development of the Ki-93 and the Ki-74. Furthermore, the Ki-74 was a bomber and there was no planned version equipped with "automatic cannons". The Ki-93 did have a big cannon, so, perhaps the author mixed the aircraft types.

Photos Tanaka Shoichi via Jun Oizumi