List of battlecruisers of Japan The Imperial Japanese Navy ( ) built four battlecruiser s , with plans for an additional four , during the first decades of the 20th century . The battlecruiser was an outgrowth of the armored cruiser concept , which had proved highly successful against the Russian Baltic Fleet in the Battle of Tsushima at the end of the Russo - Japanese War . In the aftermath , the Japanese immediately turned its focus to the two remaining rivals for imperial dominance in the Pacific Ocean : Britain and the United States . Japanese naval planners calculated that in any conflict with the U . S . Navy , Japan would need a fleet at least 70 percent as strong as the United States ' in order to emerge victorious . To that end , the concept of the Eight - Eight fleet was developed , where eight battleships and eight battlecruisers would form a cohesive battle line . Similar to the German Imperial Navy ( ) and in contrast to the Royal Navy , the Japanese envisioned and designed battlecruisers that could operate alongside more heavily - armored battleships to counter numerical superiority . The first phase of the Eight - Eight plan began in 1910 , when the Diet of Japan authorized the construction of one battleship ( ) and four battlecruisers of the . Designed by British naval architect George Thurston , the first of these battlecruisers ( ) was constructed in Britain by Vickers , while the remaining three were constructed in Japan . Armed with eight guns and with a top speed of , they were the most advanced capital ship s of their time . At the height of the First World War , an additional four battlecruisers of the were ordered . The ships would have had a main battery of ten guns , but none were ever completed as battlecruisers , as the Washington Naval Treaty limited the size of the navies of Japan , Britain and the United States . Before the Second World War , a further class of two battlecruisers were planned ( Design B - 65 ) , but more pressing naval priorities and a faltering war effort ensured these ships never reached the construction phase . Of the eight battlecruiser hulls laid down by Japan ( the four " Kongō " and four " Amagi " class ) , none survived the Second World War . " Amagi " was being converted to an aircraft carrier when her hull was catastrophically damaged by the Great Kantō Earthquake in 1923 and subsequently broken up , while the last two of the " Amagi " class were scrapped in 1924 according to the terms of the Washington Treaty . was converted to an aircraft carrier in the 1920s , but was scuttled after suffering severe damage from air attacks during the Battle of Midway on 5 June 1942 . The four " Kongō " - class ships were lost in action as well : two during the Naval Battle of Guadalcanal in November 1942 , one by American submarine in November 1944 , and one by American aircraft at Kure Naval Base in July 1945 . " Kongō " class . The four ships were the first battlecruisers ordered by the Imperial Japanese Navy . The four ships were authorized in 1910 as part of the Emergency Naval Expansion Bill , in response to the construction of HMS " Invincible " by the British Royal Navy . Designed by British naval architect George Thurston , the first ship of the class ( " Kongō " ) was constructed in Britain by Vickers , with the remaining three built in Japan . They were armed with eight main guns , could sail at , and were considered to " outclass all other [ contemporary ] ships " . " Kongō " was completed in August 1913 , " Hiei " in August 1914 , and " Haruna " and " Kirishima " in April 1915 . The vessels saw minor patrol duty during the First World War . In the aftermath of the Washington Naval Treaty , all four ships underwent extensive modernization in the 1920s and 1930s , which reconfigured them as fast battleships . The modernizations strengthened their armor , equipped them with floatplanes , overhauled their engine plant , and reconfigured their armament . With a top speed of and efficient engine plants , all four were active in the Second World War ; " Hiei " and " Kirishima " sailed with the carrier strikeforce to attack Pearl Harbor , while " Kongō " and " Haruna " sailed with the Southern Force to invade Malaya and Singapore . " Hiei " and " Kirishima " were lost during the Naval Battle of Guadalcanal , " Kongō " was torpedoed on 21 November 1944 in the Formosa Strait , and " Haruna " was sunk during the Bombing of Kure on 28 July 1945 . " Amagi " class . As part of the Eight - Eight fleet , four s were planned . The order for these ships and four battleships of the " Kii " class put an enormous strain on the Japanese government , which by that time was spending a full third of its budget on the navy . was the first ship to be laid down ; construction began on 6 December 1920 at the naval yard in Kure . " Amagi " followed ten days later at the Yokosuka naval yard . " Atago " s keel was laid in Kobe at the Kawasaki shipyard on 22 November 1921 , while " Takao " , the fourth and final ship of the class , was laid down at the Mitsubishi shipyard in Nagasaki on 19 December 1921 . The terms of the February 1922 Washington Naval Treaty forced the class ' cancellation , but the two closest to completion ( " Amagi " and " Akagi " ) were saved from the scrappers by a provision that allowed two capital ships to be converted to aircraft carrier s . However , the 1923 Great Kantō earthquake caused significant stress damage to the hull of " Amagi " . The structure was too heavily damaged to be usable , and conversion work was abandoned . " Amagi " was stricken from the navy list and sold for scrapping , which began on 14 April 1924 . The other two ships , " Atago " and " Takao " , were officially canceled two years later ( 31 July 1924 ) and were broken up for scrap in their slipways . " Akagi " went on as an aircraft carrier to fight in the Second World War , where she was sunk after air attack during the Battle of Midway . Design B - 64 / B - 65 class . Design B - 64 was originally intended to be part of Japan ' s Night Battle Force , a force that would attack an enemy fleet ' s outer defense ring of cruisers and destroyers under the cover of darkness . After penetrating the ring , Japanese cruisers and destroyers would launch torpedo attacks on the enemy ' s battleships . The remainder of the enemy would be finished off by the main fleet in the following day . The B - 64s were intended to support the lighter cruisers and destroyers in these nighttime strikes . This strategy was altered when the Japanese learned the specifications of the United States ' large cruisers . The design was enlarged and redesignated B - 65 ; their purpose would now be to screen the main battle fleet against the threat posed by the fast and heavily - armed " Alaska " s . With war looming in 1940 , the Japanese focused on more useful and versatile ship types such as aircraft carriers and cruisers ; the Japanese defeat at the 1942 Battle of Midway meant that the ships were postponed indefinitely , and with more important strategic considerations to worry about , the ships were never built .