The Nippon Maru was laid down in October 1989 under construction number 1188 at Mitsubishi Heavy Industries in Kobe and launched on March 8, 1990. On September 22, 1990, the delivery to the Mitsui OSK Passenger Line based in Tokyo took place before the ship was put into service on September 27 for cruises to Hong Kong and Taiwan .
Since 2001, the Nippon Maru , previously only used in Asia, has also been used for cruises around the world. From May 20th to 21st, 2008 the ship was at the Cruise Terminal in Hamburg and thus for the first and only time in a German port. In the same year the hull of the Nippon Maru , which had been white until then, was painted black.
Since the Fuji Maru, which is also part of the Mitsui OSK Passenger Line, was retired in December 2013, the Nippon Maru has been the only active cruise ship flying the Japanese flag.