Japanese government has been studying how to use the ships to enrich the content in relief measures for dealing with disaster. For more effective use, an improvement of operation and a systematize advance step by step on preparation in peace time. The Investigative commission by the government regarding “Hospital ship” from 1991 reported a negative conclusion in March 2021. In the report, the experts of the commission are aiming to solve not only the huge cost of construction, maintenance, and operation, but also the securing of hundreds of medical staff and ship staff, and the measures for utilization in peacetime, that called “Three major issues.” Just two months after the report, the Diet enacted the “Japan promote act of Hospital ship.” The law consists of articles that contradict the report of the commission. This indicates that the use of ships for disaster medical care has shifted from technical projects to political projects. This paper reconsiders the discussions by experts at the commissions, and proposes the merchant ships utilization method by utilizing barges for acute-phase disaster medical care consistency with the fundamental philosophy of said law.
