Maya (摩耶?) was one of four Takao-class heavy cruisers, designed to be an improvement over the previous Myōkō-class design. These ships were fast, powerful and heavily armed, with enough firepower to hold their own against any cruiser in any other navy in the world. The Takao-class ships were approved under the 1927 fiscal year budget as part of the Imperial Japanese Navy's strategy of the Decisive Battle, and forming the backbone of a multipurpose long range strike force. Maya was built by the Kawasaki shipyards in Kobe. It shares its name with the early Japanese gunboat Maya, and per Japanese naval naming conventions, is named after a mountain, specifically Mount Maya outside of Kobe.