The second batch of three Nagara-class cruisers, including Yura, was authorized by the Diet as part of the 8-6 Fleet Completion Program on 12 March 1918 although they were not funded until the Fiscal Year 1920 Naval Estimates.

The turbines developed a total of 90,000 shaft horsepower (67,000 kW) and were intended to give the cruisers a speed of 36 knots (67 km/h; 41 mph).

Yura conducted trials with a Yokosuka E1Y2 reconnaissance floatplane in 1927–1928 that was stowed on the flying-off platform and lowered to the sea for takeoff and recovered by a derrick installed next to the bridge.

After the torpedo boat Tomozuru capsized during a storm in 1934, the IJN realized that many of its ships were top-heavy and began modifying them to make them more stable.

Yura began her modifications in October that included reducing the amount of equipment above the upper deck, shortening the foremast, and adding 195 long tons (198 t) of ballast.

[9] After several of the 5,500-ton cruisers suffered structural damage during the Fourth Fleet Incident in 1935, the ship's hull was strengthened by reinforcing the joints and adding Ducol steel plates to the deck and sides in 1936–1937.

On 1 December, Yura became a private ship in the 5th Squadron which patrolled Chinese waters off the Yangtze River delta, Qingdao (Tsingtao) and Dalian (Dairen) from 25 March to 23 April 1925.

Escorted by the First Destroyer Squadron, the unit patrolled Chinese waters off Qindao, Dalian, and Qinhuangdao (Chinwangtao) from 29 March to 21 April 1929.

[19] The IJN dispatched the Third Cruiser Squadron, consisting of Yura, and her sisters Naka and Abukuma to the Shanghai area on 28–29 January.

Upon her arrival back in Sasebo, Yura was docked for several months to repair damage inflicted by the muzzle blast of her own guns.

[14] The squadron visited ports in Japanese Taiwan on 5–15 July and then patrolled southern Chinese waters until returning to Japan on 21 August, after which it participated in a fleet review off Yokohama four days later.

After her return, the ship had a refit that improved her stability that lasted until January 1935[22] and Captain Wakabayashi Seisaku assumed command on 1 November.

Yura was assigned to the Sasebo Guard Squadron, formed from ships in reserve, on 15 November and had her hull strengthened and her engines repaired during a refit from 10 June 1936 to March 1937.

[23] Yura became the flagship of Cruiser Squadron 8, commanded by Rear Admiral Chūichi Nagumo, of the First Fleet when she was recommissioned in March.

On 15 November the cruiser became the flagship of the Fifth Submarine Squadron which was assigned to the newly formed Fourth Fleet which was tasked with the defense of the islands of the South Seas Mandate.

[26] When the attack on Pearl Harbor began on 8 December (Japanese time), Yura was covering the first troop convoy south of the Cape of Camau, French Indochina, while her submarines were part of a patrol line north of the Anambas Islands.

The submarine had problems transmitting its report so that Yura and the other addressees had difficulties decoding it and it took about two hours before the news was received by Vice Admiral Jisaburō Ozawa, commander of the invasion force.

The assaulting troops occupied their objectives against little resistance, and Yura returned to Cam Ranh Bay on 27 December to begin a refit that lasted until 16 January 1942.

The ship patrolled the area between Cap St. Jacques (Vũng Tàu) and Natuna Besar until her return to Cam Ranh Bay on 3 February.

The British gunboat HMS Scorpion escaped detection and was able to set one Japanese transport on fire before she was sunk by Yura and the destroyers Fubuki and Asagiri on the evening of 14 February.

The cruiser covered the landings of troops at Palembang, Bangka Island, and Bantam Bay and Merak on Java during the rest of the month.

[14] In April, Yura was assigned to the raids in the Indian Ocean under Vice Admiral Jisaburō Ozawa's Second Expeditionary Fleet.

Yura, accompanied by the destroyers Ayanami, Yūgiri, Asagiri, and Shiokaze, departed Mergui and steamed into the Bay of Bengal with the cruisers Chōkai and Suzuya, Kumano, Mikuma and Mogami and the light carrier Ryūjō to attack Allied merchant shipping.

On 6 April 1942, 14 miles (23 km) east of Kalingapatnam in the Bay of Bengal Yura and Yūgiri sank the Dutch merchant vessel Batavia en route from Calcutta to Karachi.

Yura was dispatched to Truk with Vice Admiral Kondō's IJN Second Fleet to begin reinforcement operations, and was thus at the Battle of the Eastern Solomons on 24 August 1942.

Although the light carrier Ryūjō was sunk and Chitose was damaged, Yura emerged unscathed, and returned to Truk on 5 September 1942.

On 25 September 1942, while at Shortland, she was attacked by two Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress bombers of the USAAF 11th Bomb Group based at Espiritu Santo and was slightly damaged.

[14] On 18 October 1942, en route back to Shortland, Yura was attacked by the submarine USS Grampus off Choiseul Island.

2 Attack Unit consisting of Rear Admiral Tamotsu Takama's flagship Akizuki, Harusame, Murasame and Yūdachi.

At the north entrance to Indispensable Strait, off Guadalcanal, on 25 October 1942 (the day before the Battle of the Santa Cruz Islands), Yura, leading an attack group of destroyers off Santa Isabel Island in the Solomons was attacked by five SBD Dauntless dive-bombers of VS-71 and hit aft by two bombs near the engine room.