[5] Along with the Minekaze and Kamikaze classes, the Mutsuki-class ships formed the backbone of Japanese destroyer formations throughout the twenties and thirties.

The Minekaze and Kamikaze classes were withdrawn from front line service and reassigned to secondary duties towards the end of the 1930s.

After the Fourth Fleet Incident of September 1935, during which many ships in the Imperial Japanese Navy were damaged by a typhoon while on training exercises, weaknesses in the Mutsuki-class were addressed by retrofitting with a strengthened, more compact, bridge, with raked smokestacks, and with redesigned watertight shields on the torpedo mounts.

The Mutsuki-class destroyers were built with the same main battery as the Kamikaze-class, consisting of four Type 3 120 mm 45 caliber naval guns in single open mounts, exposed to the weather except for a small shield.

However, the main difference from the Kamikaze class was the use of two triple 24-inch (610 mm) torpedo tubes instead of the previous three double launchers.

Some ships immediately received Type 93 13 mm AA Guns mounted in front of the bridge and abaft the aft stack.

[9] Of the surviving members of the class in 1943, four had their aft bank of torpedo tubes removed to reduce weight and to permit storage of cargo.

[10] Nagatsuki was fatally shot by a 6-inch (152 mm) waterline shell hit, curtesy of the light cruiser USS Honolulu and ran herself aground during the battle of Kula Gulf, 6 July 1943.

In the final stages of the war, Uzuki was lost to US PT-boats, Satsuki and Yūzuki to air attacks and Minazuki to submarine torpedoes in the Philippines.