[2] While more lightly armed and armored than many of the cruiser's contemporaries, her small size and relatively simple design facilitated the vessel's construction and the ship's relatively high speed made her useful for many military operations.

[3] The design for Akashi was based on an all-steel, double-bottomed hull, with an armored deck, divided underneath by watertight bulkheads.

[2] The stability problems experienced by Suma was discovered before the completion of Akashi, and she was modified during construction with greater freeboard amidships, a flush deck, and without fighting tops to lower her center of gravity.

Unwilling to write off the ship as a loss, the Imperial Japanese Navy General Staff ordered Akashi to be completely overhauled at Kure Naval Arsenal in March 1903, and then sent the ship as a training vessel with instructors and cadets from the Imperial Naval Engineering Academy on a cruise around the coasts of China and Korea, marking port calls at Fuzhou, Shanghai, Yantai, Inchon, Busan and Wonsan, returning to Sasebo in September 1903.

On 15 May, she assisted in the rescue of survivors from the crew of the ill-fated battleships Hatsuse and Yashima after those ships struck naval mines off the coast of Port Arthur.

[citation needed] On 16 May, Akashi, with the cruiser Akitsushima and Chiyoda, bombarded Russian troops and buildings from the Bohai Gulf.

[citation needed] On 7 June, Akashi, together with Suma and the gunboats Uji, and a detachment of destroyers entered the Gulf of Bohai to support the landings of elements of the Japanese Second Army, and later bombarded Russian shore installations and a railway line along the coast of Manchuria.

Because of the ice on the upper deck and darkness at night, the rescue attempt was difficult, but the crew was able to stabilize the ship, and accompanied by the cruisers Itsukushima and Hashidate, reached Dalian for repairs.

The following morning, Akashi was initially delayed due to repair work, but joined in the search for the remaining Russian vessels, assisting in the sinking of the armored cruisers Dmitrii Donskoi [5] and Svetlana.

On 10 October, Akashi intercepted the German-flagged steamer, M Struve (1582 tons), which was attempting to smuggle a cargo of rice, salt, bread and flour to Vladivostok.

[citation needed] Akashi arrived in Yokohama to participate in a naval review celebrating the Japanese victory on 23 October 1905.

[4] In World War I, Akashi was part of the IJN 2nd Fleet in combat against the Imperial German Navy at the Battle of Tsingtao.

In 1916, she was assigned to patrol the sea lanes from Borneo to the Malacca Straits and eastern Indian Ocean against German commerce raiders, as part of Japan's contribution to the Allied war effort under the Anglo-Japanese Alliance, and was based at Singapore.