Publicizing an A5M successor could signal Japanese strength

The move to modern-looking monoplanes raises a question about deterrence as a design motive. One possibility is that their appearance and advertised capabilities were intended to influence potential opponents, as with the Yamato battleships. That interpretation remains speculative, and inadequate publicity would have weakened such an effort. Announcing an A6M replacement for the highly capable A5M could have led American observers to expect both a large performance improvement and a temporary drop in operational efficiency while crews retrained.