Yaeyama was launched by the Kure Naval Arsenal in Hiroshima Prefecture, Japan on 15 October 1931, and was commissioned into service on 31 August 1932.

In August 1937, following the Marco Polo Bridge Incident and the start of the Second Sino-Japanese War, Yaeyama was assigned as flagship for Admiral Tanimoto’s 11th Gunboat Division, at Shanghai and was responsible for patrols on the Yangzi River.

At the time of the attack on Pearl Harbor in December 1941, Yaeyama was assigned to “Operation M” (the invasion of the southern Philippines) deploying from Palau to mine the Surigao Strait.

On 3 January 1942, she became flagship for Admiral Rokuzo Sugiyama’s Third Southern Expeditionary Fleet and covered landings at Subic Bay.

[3][5] Yaeyama was refit at Cavite Naval Yards as an anti-submarine convoy escort ship in December 1943, with all minelaying rails removed and replaced by 36 depth charges, and was reassigned to the First Southern Expeditionary Fleet.