Shimakaze, hull number 125, was an experimental destroyer, envisioned as the new generation of destroyer design for the Imperial Japanese Navy, born from the 1939 4th Naval Armaments Supplement Programme. Bigger and greater in tonnage than previous types, she carried a larger, higher pressure power plant than her predecessors, which resulted in the highest speed of any Imperial Japanese destroyer, along with the largest torpedo broadside of any previous destroyer, while still carrying a typical complement of main guns.