Tanikaze was a Kagero-class destroyer of the Imperial Japanese Navy. Fujinagata Shipyards built her. She was launched on 1 November 1940 and commissioned on 25 April 1941.
Motoi Katsumi became her captain on 15 September 1941. On 7 December 1941, during the attack on Pearl Harbor, she served in the screen and took no hit. On 11 December she was at the Battle of Wake Island with the second landing.
On 4 June 1942 she was in the carrier screen at the Battle of Midway. She was still afloat when that battle ended.
Command changed twice in 1943. Kiyoshi Tomura took the ship on 25 January, and Shinichiro Maekawa succeeded him on 25 April.
At the Battle of Kula Gulf on 6 July 1943, Tanikaze was in the support group with Niizuki and Suzukaze. She and Suzukaze launched the torpedoes that hit the cruiser Helena. Those hits are not pinned to either destroyer alone. One shell struck Tanikaze and failed to explode.
Her last day came in the Sibutu Passage. On 9 June 1944 the American submarine Harder torpedoed her, and she sank.