Nippon Maru Ends 36-Year Career With Final Yokohama Call

Mitsui Ocean Cruises’ 600-passenger Nippon Maru made its final call at Yokohama’s Osanbashi Yokohama International Passenger Terminal on May 10, ending a 36-year career for the Japanese-flagged ship. More than 7,000 people attended a retirement ceremony on the terminal roof, with Mitsui Ocean Fuji also calling at Yokohama for the farewell event.

The withdrawal leaves Asuka Cruise’s Asuka II and Asuka III as the only Japanese-flagged cruise ships currently in service. For MOL Cruises Ltd.’s Mitsui Ocean Cruises, Nippon Maru’s departure also shifts the brand’s near-term capacity toward former Seabourn vessels acquired in 2023 and 2025.

Yokohama hosts final port ceremony

“We are truly honored that Yokohama was chosen as the location for such an important final occasion,” said Fumie Ono, director of the cruise project promotion division at the Port and Harbor Bureau of the City of Yokohama.

The retirement event had been announced in June 2025. Mitsui Ocean Cruises did not disclose a post-service plan for Nippon Maru, and the 21,903-ton ship remained docked at Yokohama after the ceremony.

“Nippon Maru has been much more than a cruise ship — it has been a symbol of connection, discovery, and heartfelt hospitality for generations of guests,” said Tsunemichi Mukai, president of Mitsui Ocean Cruises, during the ceremony. He also thanked guests, crew, port communities and partners who supported the vessel over its operating life.

A domestic cruise pioneer ends service

Built by Mitsubishi Heavy Industries in Japan, Nippon Maru entered service for Mitsui O.S.K. Lines on Sept. 27, 1990, with an inaugural cruise from Kobe to Keelung and Hong Kong. The roughly 22,000-gross-ton, 547-foot ship originally accommodated 422 passengers and later underwent extensive 20- and 30-year overhauls that increased capacity to 600 by its final operating period.

The ship sailed from Yokohama and other Japanese ports on domestic itineraries, longer international voyages and world cruises. MOL has cited Nippon Maru’s Panama Canal transit, a 2001 Baltic sailing described as the first Japanese cruise to the region, and the first modern around-the-world cruise by a Japanese cruise ship among its career events.

By the time MOL Cruises announced the retirement plan in 2025, Nippon Maru had operated more than 2,000 cruises, sailed nearly three million nautical miles, carried more than 600,000 passengers and visited more than 400 ports. The ship outlasted its early Japanese-market peers: Fuji Maru was retired in 2013, while NYK’s Asuka was sold in 2006 and replaced by a larger vessel.

Mitsui shifts capacity to former Seabourn ships

MOL decided in 2022 to expand its cruise business as part of a diversification strategy. Its initial plan called for an investment of more than $700 million in two 35,000-gross-ton newbuilds, but the company instead bought Seabourn Odyssey from Carnival Corporation’s Seabourn Cruise Line in March 2023.

That ship entered Mitsui service in December 2024 as Mitsui Ocean Fuji. MOL then agreed in March 2025 to acquire the roughly 32,000-gross-ton Seabourn Sojourn, a sister ship that is to join the Mitsui fleet as Mitsui Ocean Sakura.

Asuka Cruise, meanwhile, continues to operate the 50,000-gross-ton Asuka II and the 52,265-gross-ton Asuka III from Japanese ports including Yokohama, Kobe and Osaka. Asuka III entered service in 2025 while Asuka II remained in the market.

Japan targets a larger home cruise market

Japan recorded 1.8 million cruise visitors in 2025, most of them international passengers on port calls, while the domestic cruise market totaled 76,000 passengers. Another 167,000 Japanese passengers sailed on international cruises, and CLIA ranks Japan 12th as an international source market for cruising.

Domestic cruise passenger volume increased 25 percent year on year in 2025, but it remained below the pre-pandemic record of 356,000 passengers in 2019. Japan’s Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism has set a goal of growing the domestic cruise market to one million passengers by 2030.

“Japan has not enjoyed the huge growth of the international market,” said Anthony Kaufman, head of commercial strategies at Mitsui Ocean Cruises, during a Seatrade Cruise Global panel on Asia. Kaufman acknowledged barriers to entry and older market perceptions, while describing Japan’s demographic profile as a “huge opportunity.”

Additional Japanese cruise capacity is scheduled beyond Mitsui’s fleet changes. Ryobi Holdings plans to introduce the 120-passenger Sefu in summer 2027, while Oriental Land Cruises has ordered an adapted Disney Wish-class ship of about 140,000 gross tons for Disney Cruise Line Japan service from Tokyo in the fiscal year ending March 2029. Mitsui Ocean Sakura is scheduled to debut for Mitsui Ocean Cruises in September 2026.