The IJN had intended to develop a large naval fleet, but under the treaty stipulations, its size had to be greatly reduced.

Naval contracts were directed toward Mitsubishi to prevent it from suffering the financial difficulty that had befallen other companies.

Mitsubishi engineers worked on the design until the displacement of Jingei was reduced to 8000 tons in the basic plan.

[citation needed] As a result, the Katori-class cruisers came to resemble the Jingei-class submarine tenders.

[citation needed] The Jingei and its sister ship, the Chōgei, took over the duties of the submarine tenders Karasaki and Komahashi.

On 15 November 1940, the two Jingei-class ships were returned to Submarine Division Command and replaced the Takasaki and the Tsurugizaki, both of which had been flexibly designed and were converted to aircraft carriers.