I-362 was laid down on 17 March 1943 by Mitsubishi at Kobe, Japan, with the name Submarine No. 5462.[1] She was renamed I-362 on 20 October 1943 and provisionally attached to the Yokosuka Naval District that day.[1] She was launched on 29 November 1943 and was attached to the Kure Naval District on 23 April 1944.[1] She was completed and commissioned on 23 May 1944.[1]
Upon commissioning, I-362 again was attached to the Yokosuka Naval District and was assigned to Submarine Squadron 11 for workups.[1] With her workups complete, she was reassigned to Submarine Squadron 7 on 15 August 1944.[1]
On 21 August 1944, I-362 departed Yokosuka bound for Nauru on her first transport mission.[1] She arrived at Nauru on 14 September 1944, loaded 22 tons of ammunition and embarked 85 passengers, and got back underway the same day.[1] She proceeded to Truk, which she reached on 21 September 1944.[1] She unloaded her cargo and disembarked her passengers, then took aboard 83 Imperial Japanese Navy Air Service personnel and departed on 22 September 1944.[1] She returned to Yokosuka on 3 October 1944.[1]
I-362 got underway from Yokosuka on 24 October 1944 for her second transport voyage, this time setting course for Marcus Island, which she reached on 30 October 1944.[1] After unloading supplies, she left the same day bound for Yokosuka, where she arrived on 6 November 1944.[1] She then began an overhaul.[1]
With the overhaul complete, I-362 put to sea from Yokosuka on 1 January 1945 for her third supply voyage.[1] She was scheduled to call at Truk, then proceed to Meleyon Island at Woleai in the Caroline Islands, where she was scheduled to arrive on 21 January 1945.[1]
On 13 January 1945, the United States Navy destroyer escort was in the eastern Caroline Islands as one of two escorts for two merchant tankers making a voyage from Ulithi Atoll to Eniwetok when she established radar contact on an unidentified vessel at a range of 14000yd.[1] Fleming closed the range and challenged the vessel at a range of 4000yd, but the vessel did not reply.[1] Fleming continued to close, and lost radar contact at a range of 1900yd, but then immediately acquired a sonar contact, suggesting that the vessel was a submarine that had submerged.[1] Closing to 1000yd, Fleming illuminated the area in the direction of the contact with a searchlight, but her crew saw nothing on the surface.[1] She then dropped a pattern of depth charges, followed by four Hedgehog attacks — each of 24 projectiles — against the submarine.[1] Her last Hedgehog attack was just after midnight on 14 January 1945, and resulted in three underwater explosions followed by a deep, rumbling explosion that disabled Fleming′s sound gear.[1] Fleming′s crew then observed debris and an oil slick on the surface, marking the sinking of the submarine with the loss of all hands at 12.1333°N 181°W.[1]
The submarine Fleming sank probably was I-362.[1] On 15 March 1945, the Imperial Japanese Navy declared to be presumed lost with all hands off the Caroline Islands.[1] She was stricken from the Navy list on 10 April 1945.[1]