Japan’s goal since the Meiji Restoration had been to catch up with the West's industrial and military capability, and also to reach out and acquire an empire of its own to secure the raw materials which it now understood powered the West’s industrialization.  Thus, Japan not only watched western developments carefully, but also borrowed heavily from the West in terms of design during this period.  Virtually every significant design element of the Meiji 13 and Meiji 18 rifles was borrowed from a European rifle.  The increasingly widespread adoption of tube magazine repeaters represented by the M1871/84 German Mauser, M1878 French and M1884 Kropatscheks, and the M1884 Norwegian Jarmann led the Japanese to issue the experimental Meiji 20th Year Type tube magazine rifles for field trials barely two years after adoption of the Meiji 18.  Japanese observations of ammunition and repeater evolution in Europe, including, for example, the abrupt cancellation of the indigenous designed single-shot M1885 Portuguese Guedes in favor of adoption of the 8mm M1886 Portuguese Mauser-Kropatschek, and Austria’s almost immediate replacement of the 11mm M1886 Austrian Mannlicher (the adoption of which caused great political and public turmoil on account of its obsolescence even as it was being adopted), with the improved 8mm cartridge M1888 Austrian Mannlicher rifle also did not go unnoticed.

   In early Meiji 22 (1889) now full Colonel Tsuneyoshi Murata traveled to Europe to study both the repeater-type military rifles that were being fielded by European countries as well as their adoption of a new ammunition propellant first adopted by the French, nitro-based “smokeless” powder, the first true breakthrough in firearms propellant since the invention of black powder centuries before.  Change had come so quickly that the Japanese would have to borrow from the Europeans once again just to stay in the race.  (And make no mistake, the Europeans in these decades were fully engaged in, and committed to, an arms race every bit as serious and consuming as any 20th Century arms race would be).

   The Meiji 22 Murata is yet an additional, evolutionary improvement designed by Murata, the principal designer of the Meiji 13 and Meiji 18 Murata rifles who presented his rifle for consideration to the Japanese War office.  Borrowing substantially from the Austrian-designed, Steyr-built M1886 Portuguese Mauser-Kropatschek, this Murata rifle is a clear improvement over its predecessor Meiji 18 Murata Rifle adopted only four years earlier in 1885, which itself was developed almost as soon as the first Murata, the Meiji 13 Murata rifles were being fielded.  Considering the state of Japanese industry only just nine year previous, this is a noteworthy accomplishment.    

   The new Meiji 22 Murata was just coming on-line when the Sino-Japanese war of 1894 broke out and played only a very limited role in that conflict.  The pace of arms evolution during this period was so furious, however, that by the time of the Russo-Japanese war of 1905 the Meiji 22 Murata was already delegated to a secondary role.  The Murata’s design limitations were made clear by the Otsumi War (Taiwan Punitive invasion of 1895) and confirmed by the North Qing Incident (the Boxer Rebellion Expedition of 1900) in which the Meiji 22 was the primary front-line rifle used by the Japanese.

   Development of a replacement for the Meiji 22 Murata began in earnest in 1895.  This new rifle was fielded in 1897 (30 Meiji) and became the Arisaka Year 30 rifle (commonly referred to as the “Type 30”).

   A Meiji 22 carbine with a 19 ½" barrel, essentially a shortened Meiji 22 rifle, was also produced (see below).

   Production of the Meiji 22 ended in October 1899; nevertheless the Meiji 22 magazine rifle was still in substantial if rear echelon use throughout the Russo-Japanese war of 1905.