Kongō Maru (金剛丸) was an 7,043 gross register ton passenger-cargo ship built by Harima Shipbuilding Company in Japan for Kokusai Kisen Kabushiki Kaisha in 1935.

Kokusai Kisen received subsidies from the Japanese government for her construction, as part of a program to encourage the production of large, high-speed transports and tankers, which could be quickly converted to military use in times of conflict.

From January 1937, Kongō Maru was leased to Nippon Yusen, and operated on trade routes to the eastern coast of North America via the Panama Canal.

At the time of the attack on Pearl Harbor, Kongō Maru was at Kwajalein, from which she deployed as part of the Japanese task force in the first attempt to invade Wake Island on 8 December 1941.

[2] During the invasion of Lae-Salamaua on 8 March 1942, Kongō Maru transported elements of the Japanese Special Naval Landing Forces to Huon Gulf in what is now eastern Papua-New Guinea.