Kumano Maru (熊野丸) was a landing craft carrier with a full-length flight deck built for the Imperial Japanese Army (IJA) during World War II.

In March 1944 the IJA and the Imperial Japanese Navy (IJN) held a conference to decide how to better protect their merchant shipping from the heavy losses suffered at the hands of American submarines.

The services agreed that the IJA would convert two standard Type M (military) 9,502-gross register ton (GRT) cargo ships into landing-craft carriers with full aviation facilities, beginning with Kumano Maru.

[13] Kumano Maru was laid down at the Hitachi Shipbuilding shipyard at Innoshima, near Kure, as a standard wartime cargo ship on 15 August 1944 and was converted into her aircraft-carrier configuration while under construction.

The ship was launched on 28 January 1945 and was attacked by 13 Grumman F6F Hellcat and 14 Vought F4U Corsair fighters on 19 March during the American air raid on the Kure area.

[14] Fuel oil shortages caused the Japanese to consider removing her turbines and converting the ship's boilers to burn coal, but nothing was ultimately done.

To improve her suitability for the task of repatriating Japanese forces abroad, her horizontal funnel was replaced by a vertical one[14] and four large lifeboats was added on davits that overhung the flight deck.

Kumano Maru remained on repatriation duty until she was sold for scrap to Kawasaki in 1947; demolition began at their Kobe facility on 4 November and lasted until 1 September 1948.