Japan’s out-of-touch leaders fail to engage young people in coronavirus response
- Government officials and health experts have been exasperated at their inability to communicate with younger people
- Yet nowhere are the stakes higher than in Japan, where nearly one-third are over the age of 65, and the virus response depends on voluntary cooperation
The nation has so far relied on people changing their behaviour in its largely successful fight against the virus, as authorities lack the legal ability to enforce lockdowns. But while calling for cooperation worked in the early days of fighting an unknown pathogen, like their global peers younger Japanese are increasingly hit with virus fatigue. That has left officials struggling to persuade a demographic that is least likely to be struck by a harsh bout of Covid-19, but most likely to pass the virus on.
Government officials and health experts have been exasperated at their inability to communicate with younger people – and sometimes expressed incredulity at the fact that they do not read newspapers or watch television, the methods typically used by the government in Japan to reach wide audiences.
01:00
Japan's Prime Minister apologises for health system failing to keep up with coronavirus pandemic
Younger people are “one of the key factors in controlling the virus spread,” said Hitoshi Oshitani, a professor of virology at Tohoku University and a member of the expert panel advising the government, “but these are the most difficult people to send a public health message to.”