Japanese battleships Kii and Owari under construction in 1941

An item reported that there was hardly any new information available about the Japanese battleships now being build.There were at least five under construction of which one at the Kure Naval Dockyard, one at the Mitsubishi Company yard, Nagasaki and one at Maiduru or at the Kawasaki shipyard at Kobe. Of those latter third ships two were to be named Kii and Owari (1). What the value of this assumption of those names was, could not be said. Two battleships projected in 1921 with the same name were cancelled as a result of the Washington Naval Conference. A fourth ship seemed to be the Nissin launched at Kure, Japan on 30 November 1939 and the fifth seemed to be the Takamatu under construction at Yokosuka.

Note

1. Part of Kii-class fast battleships largely based on the Amagi-class battlecruisers design preceded by Tosa-class succeeded by Number 13, four planned and finally cancelled. Both ordered on 12 October 1921, Kii to be built by Kure Naval Arsenal and to be completed November 1923 and the Owari by Yokosuka Naval Arsenal to be completed in September 1923, keel laying stopped on 5 February 1923 due to the limitations of the Washington Naval Treaty and formally cancelled on 14 April 1924.

Source

Brassey’s Naval Annual 1941