Destroyers of the JMSDF had been divided into two series, anti-aircraft gun fire oriented destroyers and ASW-oriented destroyers. However, in the 1970s, a drastic review of the fleet became necessary due to the enhancement of the Soviet submarine fleet and the reinforcement of the anti-ship missiles. After consideration by Operations research, eight ships / eight helicopters concept was adopted as a new fleet organization. In this concept, each flotillas would be composed of one helicopter destroyer, five general-purpose destroyers, and two guided missile destroyers. General-purpose destroyers are a new type of destroyers for this concept, combining the anti-aircraft capability of the DDA and the anti-submarine capability of the DDK, while also capable of operating missiles and helicopters. This was the first class to be built based on this concept.
Design
The hull structure was based on the shelter deck style adopted in the, and a long forecast style was adopted which truncated the rear end. The shape under the water line resembles. In order to reduce the noise, Prairie-Masker was installed after the 3rd ship and was also equipped with the 1st and 2nd ship at a later date. From DD-129 onward, steel replaced aluminium for key elements of the superstructure including the bridge from the viewpoint of resistance and durability. However, due to this design change, the ballast had to be installed, the displacement increased and the movement performance was deteriorated. It was the first class to use combined gas or gaspropulsion system in the JMSDF. The all-gas-turbine propulsion system is composed of two Kawasaki-Rolls-Royce Tyne RM1C gas turbines for cruising and two Kawasaki-Rolls-Royce Olympus TM3B gas turbines for high speed operation. This combination and mounting method of these engines are similar to the Type 21 frigates of the British Royal Navy, so it was not possible to adopt an alternating engine room arrangement like a conventional JMSDF destroyer, the lack of redundancy was pointed out.
Equipment
The core of the combat system is the :ja:OYQ-5|OYQ-5 Tactical Data Processing System, composed of one AN/UYK-20 computer and five OJ-194B workstations and capable of receiving data automatically from other ships via Link-14. This is the first destroyer class in the JMSDF equipped with the Sea Sparrow Improved basic point defense missile system. The IBPDMS of this class uses FCS-2 fire-control systems of Japanese make and one octuple launcher at the afterdeck. And in the JMSDF, OTO Melara 76 mm compact gun and Boeing Harpoonsurface-to-surface missile are adopted from the ship of FY1977 including this class. Also, ships built in FY1979 and beyond carried Phalanx CIWS and were retrofitted to previous ships. This class introduced the capability of shipboard helicopter operations. While the JMSDF already had the "helicopter destroyer", the Hatsuyuki class were the first air-capable general purpose destroyer class. Although it has a small aviation deck, through a beartrap system, the class can operate the Mitsubishi HSS-2B anti-submarine helicopter safely in a wider range of weather conditions. Later, HSS-2B was replaced by Mitsubishi SH-60J, but there was no room to install a large data link device for SH-60J, so a simplified type was installed. Initially planned to carry out passive operation with sonobuoys laid by helicopters and towed array sonar as sensors, but because development of TASS was delayed, it was retrofitted later on only four ships. OQS-4 hull sonar was Japanese equivalent of American AN/SQS-56, and :ja:86式えい航式パッシブソーナーOQR-1|OQR-1 TASS was of AN/SQR-19.
Sub-class
Four ships of this class have been re-purposed as training vessels: JS Shimayuki, JS Shirayuki, JS Setoyuki and JS Yamayuki. These ships have been converted for training, yet they still have their weapons systems intact. They are referenced after the lead ship as the: Shimayuki-class.
