As Japan gets a Disney cruise, smaller vessels chart their own course

Guntu, a self-styled "floating 'ryokan'" (traditional Japanese inn) represents the smaller scale domestic cruises operate on compared to international vessels. | GUNTU

Nov 7, 2026

It was the shot heard round the cruise ship: In October, Tokyo Disney Resort operator Oriental Land announced that the Disney Imagination, a new 4,000-passenger ship based in the Japanese capital, will start regular round-trip voyages from spring 2029.

It’s not just Disney that sees potential in Japan-based cruises. On Oct. 2, Royal Caribbean Group and MSC Cruises — the second- and third-largest cruise operators worldwide, respectively — broke ground on the site of a new cruise terminal at Naha Port in Okinawa, with ambitions to turn it into a regional hub.

With passenger numbers in 2025 recovering to around 70% of their prepandemic peak, the Japan-bound cruise industry is experiencing a rapid comeback. More than 1.7 million inbound cruise passengers arrived in the country last year, making a record 3,117 port calls — of which the vast majority, 2,352, were made by foreign ships.

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