大湊警備府
In November 1934, Captain Tadashige Daigo assumed command, and "Yūbari" was reassigned to the Yokosuka Naval District, where she was modernized and refitted in November 1935. Afterwards, she was assigned to patrols off of the China coast. With the start of the Second Sino-Japanese War in August 1937, "Yūbari" assisted in the evacuation of Japanese civilians from coastal cities in southern China. Subsequently, she was sent north to cover landings by the Imperial Japanese Army at Hangzhou on 20 October. She returned to Yokosuka and was reassigned to the reserves in December of the same year. She was sent from March through October 1939 to the Ōminato Guard District to patrol the coast of Sakhalin .