Asashio Class

The Asashio-class Destroyers (朝潮型駆逐艦) was the first Japanese destroyer class to exceed 2,000 tons displacement after the Japanese government allowed the treaty to expire without renewal. They were built under the Maru-2 Supplementary Naval Expansion budget of 1934. They become models of destroyer design from which the two succeeding classes which vary only slightly.

They were developments of preceding designs with the intention of combining the firepower of the Fubuki-classs with the designed stability of the Shiratsuyu-class.

During the war the Asashio-class destroyers operated in the 8th, 9th and 18th Destroyer Divisions.