Talk:Glossary/@comment-26095489-20150425233645/@comment-26872367-20150815135538

Longest:  Kongou. Laid down 1911, entered service 1913, sunk 1944, for a total life of 31 to 33 years, depending on how you count. Haruna was laid down in 1912, entered service in 1915, was sunk at her moorings in 1945, and then raised and scrapped in 1946, for a life of 30-34 years years, and thus, if you go from "laid down" to "scrapped", it'd be Haruna, but by all other metrics, it'd be Kongou

Hibiki was laid down in 1930, entered service in 1932, decommissioned by the Soviets in 1953, and was either sunk as a target or scrapped (Wikipedia conflicts with itself!) in 1954 for a life of 21-24 years; Yukikaze was laid down in 1938, entered service in 1939, decommissioned in 1968, and was scrapped in 1970, for a life of 29-32 years.

Though if you want to be truly pedantic, the longest-living IJN ship (by the standard of "still extant and not sunk") isn't in KanColle at all--that would be the pre-dreadnaught battleship Mikasa, laid down in 1899, entered service 1902, decommissioned 1923, and still "afloat" in concrete today, as a memorial to the Russo-Japanese War due to her role as Admiral Togo's flagship at Tsushima.

Shortest living? I'd go with Shinano, since she never actually entered service at all--she had only been completed to the builders' trials phase when she was sunk:  Laid down (as battleship) 1940, launched (but NOT entering service!) 1944, sunk 1944, for a lifespan of 0-4 years. However, going by the "laid down to destroyed" metric, it'd be Matsu, laid down 8 August 1943, entering service 28 April 1944, sunk 4 August 1944, and officially stricken from the IJN's list of ships 10 October 1944, with a laid-down-to-sunk life of 362 days (or, on IJN paperwork, an official life of 429 days), and an in-service life of just 98 days. (My personal preference is service life, which Shinano "wins" by virtue of being sunk before commissioning, but there's the numbers on Matsu.)

Musashi laid down in 1938, commissioned 1942, and was sunk in 1944, though she wasn't stricken until the surrender, for a life of 2-6 (paper 7) years; Taiho was laid down 1941, commissioned 7 March 1944, sunk 19 June 1944, and stricken at the surrender, for a life of between 104 days and 4 years, as always, depending on how you count.

Of course, you also have to list the battlecruiser Amagi, laid down on 16 December 1921, tipped over in her drydock(!) by the Great Kanto Earthquake of 1 September 1923 and damaged beyond repair, and scrapped starting 14 April 1924, for a service life of 0 days; an extant lifespan before becoming a Total Constructive Loss of 2 years, 259 days; and a total extant life of 3 years, 120 days.