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The Zero Model 21, which had made impressive advances in the early stages of the war , began to lose speed and firepower to the new fighter planes of the U.S. Army and Navy that were appearing one after another by 1943 .

The Type 52 was developed following the Type 32 and Type 22, with the wingspan shortened from 12m of the Type 21 and Type 22 to 11m, the cowling redesigned, and a thrust-type single exhaust pipe fitted, among other measures to increase speed. As a result, the maximum speed was 565km/h, 25km/h faster than the Type 22.

In addition, the Type 52A was produced, which replaced the 20mm machine guns in the wings with belt-fed Type 99 No. 2 Type 4 20mm machine guns and had thicker wing skins to increase the dive speed limit , but the Navy's demands continued, and the Type 52B was produced, in which the right side of the 7.7mm machine gun in the nose was reinforced with a 13mm machine gun, and the Type 52C added 13mm machine guns to the outside of the 20mm machine guns on both wings of the Type 52A model. Approximately 6,000 Type 52 series aircraft were produced by Nakajima and Mitsubishi, and they continued to fight until the end of the Pacific War.