Imperial Army of Japan

Imperial Japanese Army 大日本帝國陸軍 Dai-Nippon Teikoku Rikugun
The ensign of the Imperial Japanese Army
Active	1867–1945
Country	Empire of Japan
Allegiance	Emperor of Japan
Type	Army
Role	Military ground force
Size	6,095,000 men at its height
Nickname(s)	"IJA"
Engagements	First Sino-Japanese War Russo-Japanese War World War I Second Sino-Japanese War World War II
Commanders
Ceremonial chief	Emperor of Japan Emperor Meiji Emperor Taishō Emperor Shōwa
Notable commanders	Yamagata Aritomo Ōyama Iwao Prince Kan'in Kotohito Hajime Sugiyama Hideki Tojo Yasuji Okamura Shunroku Hata Tadamichi Kuribayashi Tomoyuki Yamashita Masaharu Homma

The Imperial Japanese Army or IJA (大日本帝國陸軍, Dai-Nippon Teikoku Rikugun^?), literally "Army of the Greater Japanese Empire", was the official ground-based armed force of the Empire of Japan, from 1871 to 1945. It was controlled by the Imperial Japanese Army General Staff Office and the Ministry of War, both of which were nominally subordinate to the Emperor of Japan as supreme commander of the army and the navy. Later an Inspectorate General of Military (Army) Aviation became the third agency with oversight of the army. During wartime or national emergencies, the nominal command functions of the emperor would be centralized in an Imperial General Headquarters (IGHQ), an ad-hoc body consisting of the chief and vice chief of the Army General Staff, the minister of war, the chief and vice chief of the Naval General Staff, the inspector general of military aviation, and the inspector general of military training.

During the Meiji Restoration, the military forces loyal to Emperor Meiji were samurai drawn primarily from the loyalist daimyōs of Satsuma and Chōshū Domains. After the successful overthrow of the Tokugawa Shogunate or bakufu and the establishment of the new government of Meiji Japan, modeled on European lines, a more formal military, loyal to the central government rather than individual domains, became recognized by the general populace as a necessity to preserve Japan's independence from western imperialism.