According to Navy Recognition, on March 24, 2021, Japan Ministry of Defense Nakayama attended the commission ceremony for the new submarine JS Tōryū (SS-512), the 12th submarine of Sōryū-class and instructed to the crew.

JS Tōryū (SS-512) is the 12th and final Sōryū-class submarine produced for the JMSDF (the 6th built by Kawasaki Heavy Industries, the other 6 having been built by Mitsubishi Heavy Industries). «Tōryū» means «Fighting Dragon». The name of Tōryū is derived from the famous scenic dragon fighting in Kato City, Hyogo Prefecture, where the torrent of the Kako River flows between strangely shaped rocks.

The ship, built for 69 billion yen, has a displacement of 2,950 tons and a total length of 275.6 feet/84 meters and a width of 29.8 feet/9.1 meters. It is capable of navigating at about 20 knots/23 mph/37 km/h when submerged and 12 knots/14 mph/22 km/h when surfaced. The power source uses a lithium-ion battery, which has excellent submarine capabilities and automates the system. The Submarine is equipped with a Kawasaki 12V 25/25SB type diesel engine and another Kawasaki Kokkamusu V4-275R Stirling engine four.

The Sōryū-class is a diesel-electric submarine built by the Japanese companies Mitsubishi Heavy Industries and Kawasaki Shipbuilding Corporation for the Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force (JMSDF). It is an improved version of the Oyashio Class submarine. The keel for the first Sōryū-class submarine was laid down in March 2005 and launched in December 2007 and commissioned in March 2009.

The Sōryū-class is equipped with six HU-606 533-mm torpedo tubes that can fire Type 89 heavyweight homing torpedoes and UGM-84 Harpoon anti-ship missiles. It has an optronic mast and ZPS-6F surface/low-level air search radar for detection of enemy Anti-Submarine Warfare (ASW) and maritime patrol craft, as well as the Hughes/Oki ZQQ-7 sonar suite incorporating one bow-mounted sonar array and four flank sonar arrays.

The Sōryū-class submarine has a range of 6,100 nautical miles/7,020 miles/11,297 km and can reportedly dive to a depth of 2,132 feet/650 m, or two-fifths of a mile.