Abstract
Burgeoning literature on COVID-19 measures within Japan and abroad has argued the importance of trust in government. Surprisingly, however, trust in government ranked low in Japan under the pandemic, while Japanese citizens have by and large followed the governmental guidance. This article addresses this apparent mismatch by conceptually separating the government per se and the experts who advise it and emphasizing trust in medical experts and medical systems as a more crucial element. We use three original surveys conducted in February-March 2021 to test our claim on various related issues: infection risk perception, social distancing, new normal, and vaccine acceptance. Our evidence addresses the possibility that trust in government cannot precisely explain the effectiveness of COVID-19 measures.
