Abukuma is built as the 6th ship of the 5'500 tons Nagara-class light cruisers. Great Kanto Earthquake in 1923 caused many damages in Uraga ship dock, so compared to her sisters, Abukuma's construction took two years longer. Finally on May 26th 1925, she's completed and entered service. Her construction period overlapped with the next generation Sendai-class light cruisers.

During a large scale training in 1930, Kitakami who moved ahead collided with Abukuma from port side, causing massive damage to Abukuma's bow. During repair, the damaged spoon bow is changed into the superior double curved bow design. Among the 5,500 tons class ships, only Abukuma, Jintsuu and Naka is equipped with this kind of ship bow.

In 1938, she is equipped with torpedo launcher tubes and became the first among the Nagara class to be able to shoot oxygen torpedoes.

At first, she's positioned as the flagship of the 1st Destroyer Squadron. The 1st Destroyer Squadron is mostly consisted of older model destroyers. This is because the 1st Destroyer Squadron is tasked to escort the battleships in the back. This contrasted with the 2nd Destroyer Squadron's newer model destroyers who escort the cruisers fighting in the front line.

March 27th 1943, Attu Island Campaign.

July 29th 1943, she became the flagship of the Kiska Islands evacuation operation. Abukuma collided with coast guard's ship Kunashiro, but she still managed to finish the mission. By the way, during this mission Abukuma mistakenly identify an island as enemy ship and proceeded to launch torpedo together with destroyer Shimakaze and scored perfect hit on their target. In total they wasted around 200'000 Yen worth of torpedoes. In today's currency, that's about 1 Billion Yen.

October 25th 1944, she joined Vice Admiral Shima's fleet in the Battle of Surigao Strait who will enter the battle from behind Nishimura's fleet. But she's hit by torpedo and have emergency repair in Mindanao islands. After the repair, accompanied by Ushio, she headed to Coron. On the way they're attacked by 30 B-24 bombers. After receiving 3 hits and 4 near misses, Abukuma is stopped. Her torpedo tubes explode and an order to abandon ship is issued. With her bow standing, Abukuma sank into the Phillipine's Negros Islands' water. Ushio rescued her survivors and sent them to Manila.

In present day, the second "Abukuma" served as escort ship in the JMSDF. Her sisters in the Abukuma-class escort ship are Jintsuu, Sendai, Chikuma and Tone.