A lot of available research in the field of armor states that Japan did not make stand alone chainmail armor for combat or that it was not used a lot, or that it was only used in ancient times. This is completely wrong. Japan produced a large quantity of stand alone chainmail. This chainmail was used in place of traditional Japanese (samurai) armor and was worn like regular clothing except that the clothes were covered with chainmail, another kind of clothing was armored clothing which had different kinds of armor plates attached to the clothes, some of the armor clothing used chainmail to connect the plates to the clothing and some of the armor plates were simply sewn to the clothing. Some chainmail clothing had small armor plated but were mostly chainmail and some armored clothing had chainmail in some places but were mostly armor. Chainmail and armor clothing were made with the chainmail and armor exposed or covered by a layer of cloth, hiding the chainmail or armor from sight. Here is a site with some examples of Japanese (samurai) chainmail and armored clothing. http://samuraiantiqueworld.com