Princess Cruises has confirmed it will expand its efforts to source cruise passengers in Japan by home-porting a second ship there.

Diamond Princess will be based in the country for a seven-month season in 2014.

The vessel will join the Sun Princess in Japan and the two ships will sail from a combination of three home ports: Yokohama, Kobe and Otaru.

Princess said it expects the ships to carry at least 100,000 passengers on 42 cruises between April and October.

Sailing seven- to nine-day itineraries, they will visit more than 20 ports in Japan, South Korea, Russia and Taiwan.

The 2,670-passenger Diamond Princess was built by Mitsubishi Heavy Industries in Nagasaki, Japan, and is one of the few big cruise ships delivered by a non-European shipyard.