The First Sino-Japanese War exposed the limits of Japan's existing Jeune École-influenced approach. Japan responded by studying the battle fleet of the Royal Navy, whose concentrated heavy ships represented the kind of force Jeune École ideas had been intended to defeat. Japan used part of the £30 million Chinese indemnity to fund a balanced force of six battleships and six armored cruisers, while acknowledging that its domestic industry could not yet build them. Asahi, the fifth battleship in the program and the fifth Japanese battleship built in Britain, was ordered from John Brown at Clydebank as a modified Formidable-class design.
Chapter · 4:42-7:06
Japan's British-built Six-Six Fleet
Chinese indemnity money and British yards enabled Japan to replace an inadequate cruiser-centered doctrine with six battleships and six armored cruisers.