Public reactions toward government-sponsored COVID-19 information in Japan

Gento Kato, Susumu Annaka and Masahisa Endo
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Gento Kato: Assistant Professor, Department of Political Science and International Relations, Nazarbayev University; Associate Researcher, Waseda Institute of Political Economy, Waseda University.
Susumu Annaka: Assistant Professor, Waseda Institute for Advanced Study, Waseda University
Masahisa Endo: Associate Professor, School of Social Sciences, Waseda University.

No 2202, Working Papers from Waseda University, Faculty of Political Science and Economics

Abstract: Given the criticism of the Japanese government-sponsored information despite Japan’s relatively successful pandemic control, we designed a survey experiment to test how and when COVID-19 statistics and messages sponsored by the Japanese government influences people’s risk perception, policy evaluation, behavioral intentions, and future pandemic expectations. On average, government-sponsored statistics and messages rarely induced intended reactions from the public and could even cause backlash. Institutional trust partially played a moderating role in these effects but only slightly. Combined with outcome measures’ correlational analysis, the Japanese public was found to separate pandemic severity from government performance when forming attitudes and behaviors. This implication provides insights into the seeming disconnection between the pandemic state and government evaluation in Japan.

Keywords: COVID-19; government-sponsored information; public opinion; Japan; survey experiment (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 24 pages
Date: 2022-06
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-dem and nep-exp
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