List of destroyers of Japan

The following is a list of destroyers and 1st class (steam) torpedo boats of Japan grouped by class or design. In naval terminology, a destroyer is a fast and maneuverable yet long-endurance warship intended to escort larger vessels in a fleet, convoy or battle group and defend them against smaller, powerful, short-range attackers. The Japanese torpedo boat Kotaka of 1885 was "the forerunner of torpedo boat destroyers that appeared a decade later". They were designed to Japanese specifications and ordered from the London Yarrow shipyards in 1885. The Yarrow shipyards, builder of the parts for the Kotaka, "considered Japan to have effectively invented the destroyer".
These twenty-three 'turtle-back' destroyers, all authorised under the Ten Year Naval Expansion Programme of 1898, comprised six Ikazuchi class built by Yarrow and six Murakumo class built by Thornycroft in the UK, each carrying 1 × 12-pdr (aft) and 5 x 6-pdr guns and 2 × 18 in torpedo tubes, and followed by two larger ships from each of the same builders (the Shirakumo class from Thornycroft and the Akatsuki class from Yarrow), in which a second 12-pdr replaced the foremost 6-pdr, and finally by seven Harusame class built in Japan. All were later rated as 3rd Class destroyers (under 600 tons each). The programme also included sixteen First Class torpedo boats, included below (47 smaller 2nd and 3rd Class boats from this Programme are not included)
Before and during World War I, Japan established three grades of destroyers - the large (over 1,000 tons) 1st Class or ocean-going type, the medium (600 to 1,000 tons) 2nd Class type and the small (below 600 tons) 3rd Class type. Between 1904 and 1918, Japan built thirty-two 3rd Class destroyers (the Kamikaze class), twenty-two 2nd Class destroyers (the Sakura, Kaba, Momo and Enoki classes) and eight 1st Class destroyers (the Umikaze, Isokaze and Kawakaze classes). They also purchased two further 1st Class destroyers (the Urakaze class) built in the UK by Yarrow.
(both ships loaned from the Royal Navy from June 1917 to 1919)
From 1919 onwards, a series of destroyers were built regularly in Japan. No further 3rd Class ships were built after 1909, and only two further classes of 2nd Class ships (the Momi and Wakatake classes) were built by 1923, after which all were 1st Class. The ships of the Wakatake, Kamikaze and Mutsuki classes were initially given numbers rather than names, but names were assigned on 1 August 1928. The numbering system continued after 1928, but were not assigned to ships, which were all named.
The total of 21 excludes 7 cancelled. (Warabi lost in August 1927; Momi, Kaya and Nashi scrapped by 1940, leaving 17 which served in the Pacific War)
The total of 8 excludes 5 cancelled in 1922.
These four vessels were nominally "torpedo boats". Built under the 1st Naval Armaments Supplement Programme of 1931.
These eight vessels were nominally "torpedo boats". The total of 8 excludes another 8 cancelled units.
The total of 12 excludes 1 uncompleted (Michitsuki) and 3 cancelled; 21 intended further ships were never ordered.
The total of 19 excludes 8 cancelled.
The total excludes 16 cancelled.
The total excludes 9 never completed and cancelled units
(orders for 5 more were replaced by those for the succeeding Takanami class)
(Re-designated as multi-purpose operation destroyer)
(7 ships completed, 3 ships are under construction, 2 more ordered and with plan to construct a total of 12 ships)