The Chikugo-class destroyer escort was a class of destroyer escorts built by the Japanese Maritime Self-Defense Force as the successor of the Isuzu class, with the same ASW mission. This class was followed by JDS Ishikari. This is the first Japanese destroyer escort class to carry ASROC anti-submarine missiles.

Destroyer escort (DE) was the United States Navy mid-20th-century classification for a 20-knot warship designed with the endurance necessary to escort mid-ocean convoys of merchant marine ships.