Matsu (松, "pine tree") was the lead ship of her class of 18 Matsu-class escort destroyers built for the Imperial Japanese Navy (IJN) during the final stages of World War II.

She was sunk with the loss of most of her crew on 4 August by American destroyers while protecting a convoy returning from Chichijima.

Designed for ease of production, the Matsu class was smaller, slower and more lightly armed than previous destroyers as the IJN intended them for second-line duties like escorting convoys, releasing the larger ships for missions with the fleet.

Early production ships carried a total of twenty 25-millimeter (1 in) Type 96 anti-aircraft guns in four triple and eight single mounts.

[9] The convoy was caught later that day by a group of four light cruisers and seven destroyers that had been scheduled to bombard Chichijima the following morning.

At 19:44 the Americans detached three destroyers to finish off Matsu, which was only capable of 15 knots (28 km/h; 17 mph) by this time, while resuming the pursuit.

[9] The coordinated gunfire of Cogswell, Ingersoll and Knapp caused a large fire aboard Matsu at 19:56 and she went dead in the water two minutes later.