The Type 1 Ho-Ha was developed in 1941 as a result of a request from the Army for a vehicle that could be used to transport a squad of infantry to the battlefield protected from enemy small arms fire. Despite experiences of the Second Sino-Japanese War, APCs were viewed as too slow compared to wheeled trucks and there was not much effort for their development in the army.
Production began in 1944, Type 1 Ho-Ha being an addition to the existing Type 1 Ho-Ki, an unrelated, yet similarly named, APC design. The half-tracked Type 1 Ho-Ha was built by Hino Motors in unknown quantities.
The Type 1 Ho-Ha was based upon the German Sd.Kfz. 251/1 (known popularly as Hanomag), the main armoured personnel carrier of the German Army.
The Type 1 Ho-Ha had a pair of road wheels in front supported by a pair of short caterpillar tracks to the rear. As with the previous Type 1 Ho-Ki, a towing hitch to haul artillery was provided at the rear. Maximum armor thickness was about 8 mm but the top was open.
The Type 1 Ho-Ha carried three Type 97 light machine guns as standard armament, one on each side, just to the rear of the driver's compartment and a third mounted to the rear as an anti-aircraft weapon. All of these weapons had constricted firing arcs, which made firing directly forward or directly rearward impossible.