'Kan' was a Japanese defensive plan devised by General Heitaro Kimura’s Burma Area Army for the protection of the Burmese western coastal region of Arakan and the lower part of the Irrawaddy river valley (October 1944/May 1945).

These area were threatened by British amphibious attack by the forces of Lieutenant General Sir Philip Christison’s Indian XV Corps and land/riverine attack by the forces of Lieutenant General Sir William Slim’s British 14^th Army respectively, on the western and eastern sides of the Arakan Yomas.

The Japanese defence plan was based on the use of the much degraded formations of Lieutenant General Shozo Sakurai’s 28^th Army.