The Six-Six Fleet was a shipbuilding program initiated by Imperial Japanese Navy (IJN) in the wake of the First Sino-Japanese War and the Triple Intervention. The program was the brainchild of Yamamoto Gombei, who would later become the Minister of the Navy and the eighth Prime Minister of Japan. The completion of the plan led to the emergence of Japan as a first-class naval power.[1] Whereas during the war with China, the Japanese had gone into the conflict with a makeshift force of warships, they would now have a true battle fleet, the core of which consisted of six battleships and six armored cruisers, giving the plan its name.