In dealing with the COVID-19 Virus, the international shipping industry faces the two challenges of creating measures to prevent infection and an appropriate system for seafarer rotation. Regarding infection prevention measures, the Japanese Shipowners’ Association released a guidance on such measures mainly to international shipping companies, based on the Guideline issued by the Safety Policy Division in the Maritime Bureau of MLIT in May. Regarding the issue of seafarer rotation, the IMO continues to issue recommendations to Member State governments, but restrictions put in place by many countries hinder their implementation, leaving the situation unresolved.
Selected Papers No.26(p.18)

The United Nations Decade of Ocean Science for Sustainable Development is soon to begin, in 2021. Aiming at achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), this comprehensive process is stimulating activities of acquiring new knowledges about the ocean as well as the creation and transformational application of innovative technologies; within this process, the international research community engaged in the elucidation of changes and variability in ocean carbon and its projections is working on problem-solving initiatives based on the enhancement of scientific knowledges and its increased applications.

As Trans-Siberian Railway (TSR) transport requires a shorter lead time than maritime transport and is more economical than air transport it was often used for transportation between Japan and Europe in the 1980s. But use fell dramatically with the collapse of the Soviet Union, and information regarding it continued to be hard to obtain. In this article I would like to introduce an initiative promoting the use of a TSR-maritime transport combination as the third of the main three transport options, after shipping and air.