Japanese Light cruiser Sendai Country: Japan Type: Light cruiser Service: 1924 - 1943 Ordered: 1920 Fiscal Year Laid down: 16 February 1922 Launched: 30 October 1923 Commissioned: 29 April 1924 Struck: 5 January 1944 Fate: Sunk 3 November 1943

The Sendai were a class of light cruisers operated by the Imperial Japanese Navy. They participated in numerous actions during the Pacific War and they were intended for use as the flagships of destroyer flotillas. The Sendai class light cruisers were a development of the Nagara class. Their boilers were better located and they had four funnels instead of three. Each ship was designed with a flying-off platform and hangar, but did not actually carry aircraft until a catapult system was installed in 1929.

Sendai was a Sendai-class light cruiser in the Imperial Japanese Navy. Sendai was completed at the Mitsubishi Nagasaki shipyards on 29 April 1924. She played an important role in the Battle of Shanghai in the opening stages of the Second Sino-Japanese War, and later covered the landings of Japanese forces in southern China. During World War II, the Sendai was operated in the Pacific. She participated in the Battle of Midway and the Solomon Islands campaigns. On 2 November 1943, at the Battle of Empress Augusta Bay, Sendai was sunk by radar directed fire from American cruisers.