Together wither sister ship Hiryu was her building allowed due to the 1931-1932 supplementary naval shipbuilding program. She was laid down at the yard of Kaigun Kosho at Kure, Japan on 20 November 1934, launched on 21 December 1935, commissioned on 29 December 1937 and destroyed by an American air attack during the battle of Midway on 4 June 1942.
She was designed as an aircraft carrier in contrary to earlier carriers of the Japanese navy when hulls of battleships of battle cruisers were converted. With a displacement of 15,900 (standard)-19,500 (full load) tons were her dimensions 728’5”x 70’ x 24’5” or 222 x 21 x 7,44 metres. The flight deck had a length of 712” or 217 metres, Her four sets geared steam turbines supplied 152,000 hp while driving four screws allowed a speed of 34,5 knots. Her crew numbered 1,103 men. The armament consisted of 6x2-12,7cm guns, 26x25mm anti aircraft guns and 15-13,2mm anti aircraft guns while she carried with her in 1941 54 planes for which she was fitted out with 3 elevators and 2 fully enclosed hangars.
