This is a list of Imperial Navy Air aces flying the Mitsubishi Zero fighter during the Pacific War.

Other Navy Aces

Air Aces in A6M-2N Rufe floatplane fighter: Air Aces in metropolitan defense (over Japan):

Air aces over China (1937-1941)

The unit for operative evaluations was the Yokosuka air corps, but it transferred its responsibility to 12th Rengo Kōkūtai under the command of Captain Kiichiro Hasegawa when this group was sent to China. Commanders and pilots of the unit: This group suffered the loss of Eichi Kimura and Kichiro Kobayashi from enemy anti-aircraft fire. This unit remained under the command of Admiral Shigetarō Shimada when he led the China Air Area Fleet in the Chinese campaign.

Famous air units

The unit (Kōkūtai—"air group") with most air aces, was the Tainan Kōkūtai (in Formosa), the most famous group. They operated from Rabaul, New Britain and acquired their legendary fame over Taihoku (the Philippines), the Dutch East Indies, Lae and Buna (New Guinea) and, in the last stages of war, in defense of mainland Japan. Saburō Sakai was another member in this unit after Dutch Indies operations, from the Denpasar base on Bali. Others famous units with air aces were 3rd Air Corps (including Yoshiro Hashiguchi), 253rd Air Corps (with Tetsuzō Iwamoto and Hiroyoshi Nishizawa among its members), Genzan Air Group, and other groups. The Imperial Japanese Navy Air Service, similar to the German Luftwaffe idea of organizing an "all aces" select unit Jagdverband 44 equipped with Messerschmitt Me 262A-1a jet fighters, decided to create an all-ace unit (the 343 Kōkūtai) with Kawanishi N1K2-J fighters towards the end of the conflict; this was commanded by Minoru Genda.