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The Japanese aircraft carrier Hosho (鳳翔) (meaning "Diving Phoenix") was the first purpose-designed aircraft carrier in the world, commissioned in December 1922, 7 months before the Royal Navy's aircraft carrier HMS Hermes.

Being the first of her kind, the Hosho was actively used to develop the aircraft carrier operational methods and tactics of the Japanese Navy during the 1920's.

Her design was originally based on a cruiser-style hull, a flight deck with a depressed fore-part to accelerate lift-off, a starboard island, and three starboard funnels that were reclinable during flight operations.

After trial she was improved by removing the island and flattening the flight deck, giving her a flush-deck design.

She served during the Sino-Japanese War in 1937.

By the beginning of World War II, the Hosho had been superseded by other models: she was too small and too slow to accommodate the newest types of carrier planes such as the Mitsubishi Zero. She saw action however during the Battle of Midway, offering modest air support to the main fleet.

Efforts were made to lengthen and widen her flight deck, but the overhang weakened her stability and ocean-going capability.

She was relegated to training duty in Japan's inland sea after 1943.

After the war, she was used as a transport to repatriate Japanese personnel from abroad until June 1946, before being dismantled in 1947.