The Japanese destroyer Yayoi was one of twelve Mutsuki-class destroyers built for the Imperial Japanese Navy (IJN) during the 1920s. During the Pacific War, she participated in the Battle of Wake Island in December 1941 and the occupations of New Guinea and the Solomon Islands in early 1942.

The Mutsuki-class destroyers were a class of twelve destroyers of the Imperial Japanese Navy. All were given traditional poetic names of the months of the year by the Lunar calendar or phases of the moon. Some authors consider the Kamikaze and Mutsuki-class destroyers to be extensions of the earlier Minekaze class.