Could Zuikaku have served as a fighter carrier?

Could Japan have taken Zuikaku to Midway as a fighter carrier?

Yes. The available fighters could have strengthened the combat air patrol, although Japanese planners did not treat a fighter carrier as an available option.

Zuikaku could have carried the available fighters even without a complete conventional air group. In the student's proposal, those aircraft would reinforce the combat air patrol and give Kido Butai a stronger defensive shield. A fighter-heavy air group was a sound proposal for using the operational carrier Japan left behind. Its obstacle was a doctrinal approach that did not treat this alternative as an option.