Mitsubishi Nagoya Aircraft Works (Oe Plant)

The Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Nagoya Aircraft Works, centred on the Oe Plant in Nagoya's Minato Ward, was where the Imperial Japanese Navy's Mitsubishi A6M Zero fighter was designed and built. In October 1937 the Navy issued its requirements for the "12-Shi carrier fighter", and Mitsubishi's team began development here under chief designer Jiro Horikoshi.

The first prototype was completed at the Nagoya works on 16 March 1939. Because the factory had no adjoining airfield, the airframe was dismantled and hauled slowly by oxcart to Kakamigahara airfield in Gifu Prefecture — reportedly to protect the delicate structure from jolting — where it made its maiden flight on 1 April 1939. The Navy formally adopted the type on 24 July 1940. About 10,430 Zeros were built during the war: roughly 3,880 by Mitsubishi and about 6,545 under licence by Nakajima, which thus accounted for more than 60 percent. The Nagoya works also produced the A5M (Type 96) carrier fighter and the G4M (Type 1) land-based attack bomber.

The Nagoya aircraft factories consequently became priority targets of the USAAF strategic bombing campaign from December 1944. B-29s bombed the Oe Plant on 18 December, after the Tonankai earthquake of 7 December had already damaged the buildings. Between December 1944 and July 1945 Nagoya was attacked 21 times, and production was dispersed to other locations.

After the war Oe continued as a Mitsubishi Heavy Industries aerospace site. In January 2020 the company opened the Oe Clock Tower Aviation Archives in the plant's former main office building, known as the Clock Tower, taking over the collection of the museum at the Komaki South Plant that had closed at the end of May 2017. Covering the Taisho era to the late 1940s, it opened with 148 original objects and 60 panels and displays restored examples of the Zero and of the Shusui, Japan's first rocket-powered interceptor. Visits are by advance reservation only, on Wednesdays, Thursdays and Fridays; the address is 2-15 Oe-cho, Minato-ku, Nagoya.