Japanese youth in the COVID-19 era

Abstract

In Japan economic and health impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic have been asymmetric across age groups. Japan’s current wave of coronavirus infections has mostly affected its younger generations, reflecting both the efficacy of its vaccination program among the elderly and the pitfalls of a slow rollout that still hasn’t reached most of the youth population. And although now COVID-19 vaccines are available in Japan, it is very important to understand whether young Japanese are willing to be vaccinated against COVID-19, as this can have large consequences for the success of the vaccination program in the country all in all and this can cause potentially large as Japanese nation health and Japanese economic consequences. Moreover, the surveys on Japanese citizens’ behavioral changes and preparedness against COVID-19 conducted by Japanese researchers in 2021 revealed that being younger was among the factors associated with reluctance to follow COVID-19 prevention measures. Despite a gradual lifting of confinement measures across Japan recently, changes in everyday behavior of Japanese citizen will still be crucial in the coming months to avoid new waves of infections. In this connection, building trust to government’ actions (taken COVID-19 pandemic fight measures) among the young people remains crucial. Based on carried out in Japan 2021 surveys’ findings, the author highlights the key challenges arisen in the proses of vaccination, Japanese governance responses to build back better this situation for all generations of the country and possible ways for addressing new challenges.