There is however no angled tripod mainmast like the one of the American Arleigh Burke-class destroyer because of the heavy weather of the Sea of Japan in winter.

The aft was designed like a "mini-Oranda-zaka" as with the Kongō class to avoid interference between helicopters and mooring devices.

[2] Destroyers built under the First Defense Build-up Plan, including the former Murasame class, adopted a unique long forecastle style called "Oranda-zaka".

[2] Akebono was laid down on 29 October 1999 at IHI Corporation Tokyo as the 1997 plan and launched on 25 September 2000.

The destroyer conducted joint training with the navies of each country in the Indo-Pacific region during the deployment.