Commissioned in 1925, she became a training ship in 1935 and was decommissioned in 1942 during the early months of the Pacific campaign of World War II.

Following World War I, the Imperial Japanese Navy General Staff began to re-consider submarine warfare as an element of fleet strategy.

Before the war, the Imperial Japanese Navy regarded submarines as useful only for short-range coastal point defense.

[1] However, based on the success of the Imperial German Navy in the deployment of long-range cruiser submarines for commerce raiding Japanese strategists came to realize possibilities for using the weapon for long range reconnaissance, and in a war of attrition against an enemy fleet approaching Japan.

The greater power and more streamlined shape gave a slightly higher surface speed than that of I-51, or even the Imperial German Navy submarine U-135, but with reduced range.

They planned several more submarines of the same Kaidai II design, but cancelled all of them before formally signing contracts for their construction after the arrival of seven Imperial German Navy U-boats Japan received as war reparations at the end of World War I prompted a review of Japanese submarine design concepts.

Submarine Division 17 was deactivated on 15 November 1935,[7] and I-52 was assigned directly to the Kure Naval District that day.

[5] On 8 December 1941 — the day the Pacific campaign of World War II began in East Asia, which was 7 December 1941 on the other side of the International Date Line in Hawaii, where Japan began the war in the Pacific with its attack on Pearl Harbor — I-52 was assigned to the Kure Guard Force in the Kure Naval District for duty as a training ship in the Seto Inland Sea, based at Kure.