Mitsui Ocean Sakura Debuts September 19 as Japan’s Luxury Line Doubles Its Fleet
Mitsui Ocean Cruises will begin sailing its second ship, Mitsui Ocean Sakura, on September 19, expanding the three-year-old Japanese luxury brand to two vessels for the first time. The move affects guests booked on any of the 29 sailings the ship will run through December, all departing from ports across Japan on itineraries of one to three nights.
What’s Changing
Mitsui Ocean Sakura was named in a ceremony at Yokohama’s Hammerhead cruise terminal on September 16, with the line’s own crew and employees serving collectively as the ship’s namers rather than a single celebrity godparent. Captain Satoshi Ninomiya, the vessel’s inaugural captain, broke the traditional bottle to mark the naming.
The ship departs Yokohama at 5 p.m. on September 19 for its maiden voyage. A City of Yokohama ceremony, including a plaque exchange with the port, precedes the send-off.
Not a New Build, and the Press Release Doesn’t Say So
Mitsui Ocean Cruises describes Sakura as a new addition to its fleet, but the ship isn’t new construction. She entered service in 2010 as Seabourn Sojourn, a Seabourn Odyssey-class vessel built by T. Mariotti in Genoa, and sailed for Carnival Corporation’s Seabourn brand until MOL, the Japanese shipping conglomerate that owns Mitsui Ocean Cruises, acquired her earlier this year. She completed her final Seabourn sailing in Vancouver in the spring, crossed the Pacific, and spent June in dry dock in Nagasaki being converted for her new role.
That makes Sakura a sister ship to Mitsui Ocean Fuji, the line’s first vessel, in the most literal sense. Fuji entered Mitsui service in December 2024 as a converted Seabourn Odyssey, a ship built one year earlier at the same Italian shipyard. The two vessels are close to identical on paper: Fuji measures 32,477 gross tons to Sakura’s 32,346, a gap of just 131 tons, and both carry 458 guests across 229 suites. Where Fuji is a re-hulled Seabourn Odyssey, Sakura is a re-hulled Seabourn Sojourn built to the same specifications a year later.
The strategy tracks with how Mitsui has built this brand since launching it in October 2023: by acquiring existing luxury tonnage from Carnival-owned Seabourn rather than ordering new ships, which shortens the runway to market considerably compared with a newbuild program that typically takes several years from contract to delivery.
What Travelers Should Know
Guests booking Sakura’s debut season should expect short-format cruising rather than the longer Grand Asia-style itineraries Mitsui has marketed to North American travelers on Fuji. The ship’s first sailing runs five nights from Yokohama with calls at Toba and Hidaka, and the broader September-through-December schedule leans on one- to three-night runs, averaging a little over three nights per cruise across the 29-sailing season. Departure ports for the debut season include Tokyo, Kobe, Hakata, Kanazawa, Niigata, Nagoya and Hiroshima in addition to Yokohama.
Onboard, Sakura will carry over hallmarks Mitsui introduced on Fuji, including the Sushi Bar Shiosai specialty restaurant and an open-air footbath on the pool deck. The line has confirmed 61 total sailings for Sakura through September 2027 but has not yet detailed itineraries or fares beyond the debut season.
Why It Matters for the Fleet
Sakura’s arrival also closes a gap in Mitsui’s lineup. The company retired its longtime ship Nippon Maru in May, leaving Fuji as the brand’s only vessel for four months. With Sakura sailing under a Japanese flag alongside Fuji, Mitsui Ocean Cruises returns to a two-ship fleet for the first time since that retirement, positioning the line to run more simultaneous itineraries across Japan’s ports heading into 2027.
