A new name is on Japan's cruise scene. The Mitsui Ocean Sakura, the second luxury ship for Mitsui Ocean Cruises, launched its maiden season on September 19, 2026, with a five-night sailing that called at Toba and Hidaka.
The ship has a past life. Built in Italy in 2010 as the Seabourn Sojourn, the 32,000-ton vessel carried just 450 passengers — small by cruise standards, and firmly in luxury territory. Mitsui OSK picked it up in late May, then sent it to drydock in Nagasaki for a refit before an official christening at Yokohama's Hammerhead Cruise Terminal. The company framed the ceremony as the start of a new era: with the Sakura alongside the Mitsui Ocean Fuji (another ex-Seabourn ship, acquired in late 2024), it now runs a two-ship modern luxury fleet.
The debut season is all about short, accessible sailings. Twenty-nine departures are scheduled through December, hitting a generous spread of Japanese ports: Tokyo, Kobe, Hakata, Kanazawa, Niigata, Nagoya and Hiroshima. That's a strong mix — Kanazawa for gardens and samurai districts, Hiroshima for history and Miyajima nearby, Kobe for beef and harbour strolls. The pattern continues into 2027, with another 61 cruises planned through September.
The reshuffle comes at a cost elsewhere: Mitsui retired the veteran Nippon Maru, a 1990-built Japanese-flagged ship, in late May. She's since been sent to a scrapyard in India.
For travellers, this is worth a look if you want Japan by sea without mega-ship crowds. A 450-guest ship means no queues for the buffet and a crew that knows your name, and short itineraries of a few nights make it easy to bolt a cruise onto a longer Japan trip — say, flying into Tokyo and sailing south to Kobe or Hiroshima. Domestic deployment also sidesteps the international repositioning legs that often dominate Japan cruise seasons, and English-speaking service on a ship of this pedigree should be solid. If you've been priced out of Seabourn-style luxury, watching how Mitsui prices these Japanese sailings could pay off.
Reported by Cruise Industry News.
