Cruise Report

Starting April 2023, Peace Boat will start sailing on its new chartered vessel, the Pacific World. April 2023 also marks the 40th anniversary of Peace Boat. We interviewed Mr. Kanamaru, a renowned cruise writer, to tell us about the highlights of the cruises that will take place in this anniversary year.Text and composition by:

Tomoyoshi Kanamaru (Cruise writer) A nautical writer who has cruised to various parts of Japan and five continents. He writes for Cruise Ship Collection, which introduces cruise ships from around the world, and contributes serial articles and cruise reports to the magazine Cruise (Kaiji Press).

Peace Boat: 1983→2023

It was 1983. That late summer, one ship set sail for Guam, Saipan, and other southern waters. There were less than 200 people on board. From the following year onward, the ship continued to sail to various parts of Asia and eventually began an annual grand voyage that would take her to every corner of the world. How many people could have predicted such a future? In 2023, Peace Boat will celebrate the 40th anniversary of its maiden voyage. Three round-the-world cruises will set sail from Japan in this commemorative year. I would like to introduce some of the notable ports of call and topics that are unique to the 40th anniversary.

Total Annular Solar Eclipse from the Pacific World

The 40th year of Peace Boat will start with Peace Boat’s 114th Voayge, a round-the-world cruise on the Pacific World departing in April. Before becoming the Pacific World, this ship drew attention ten years ago, in 2013, when it became the first foreign cruise ship to begin regular cruises to and from Japan. In 2019, it sailed around the world on a charter cruise for a Japanese travel agency. In 2020, it was going to be used as a hotel ship in Yokohama during the 2020 Tokyo Olympics. The Pacific World is the rebirth of such a famous ship. On its debut cruise, the Pacific World is scheduled to observe a total annular solar eclipse at sea on April 20. Expectations are high for a celestial show on the new ship.

Reflecting on the Origins of Peace Boat Cruises in Singapore

All three around-the-world cruises of 2023 will dock at Singapore, a port of great importance and meaning to Peace Boat. In 1982, a group of young people came together in response to the history textbook controversy. One year later, they set sail around the Asia-Pacific region under the slogan: Look at past wars and create future peace. This is how Peace Boat began. Ever since Peace Boat began calling at Singapore on its around-the-world voyages, it has continued this original intention by conducting tours there to examine the legacies of WWII. In the wake of Peace Boat’s 40th anniversary, this port of call offers an opportunity to glimpse into Peace Boat’s origins.

Piraeus: Where Peace Boat’s Around-the-World Cruises Began

The 114th and 115th Global Voyages will also call at Piraeus in Greece. Piraeus is known as the sea gateway to Athens, the center of ancient Greek civilization. At the same time, Piraeus is also a memorable port in the history of Peace Boat, because Peace Boat’s first around-the-world voyage departed from this port in the fall of 1990. It was the 10th Peace Boat voyage. After leaving Piraeus, the Greek cruise ship “Oceanos” sailed through the Mediterranean Sea, crossing the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans. It then made a stopover in Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Japan, in December of the same year, and returned safely to Piraeus in January 1991. In a way, the cradle of Western civilization is also the birthplace of Peace Boat’s around-the-world cruises.

PHOTO: PEACEBOAT, Isogai Miki, Okada Keita, Chiga Kenji, Nakasuji Kota, Nakamura Mitsutoshi