COVID-19 and Public Policy Studies

Abstract

The year “2020” will be remembered as the year the world faced the spread of cornavirus. Our daily lives have changed drastically, as well as the conventional wisdom, and a “new normal”, clearly different from the previous life style, is required. Indeed, various aspects of society could not escape change. With the advent of cornavirus disease (COVID-19), the new phenomenon that humankind has experienced, is truly a public problem. To solve it, it is necessary to take measures through public policies. Therefore, COVID-19 was included in the research area of public policy studies, and it was positioned as a new research theme. This paper aims to consider what kinds of viewpoints are necessary to deal with COVID-19 in the public policy studies. Further, it focuses on the “first wave” of the infection spread in Japan from January to May 2020. The paper proceeds with discussions from two points: a policy process theory approach and a comparative politics approach. In that sense, this paper will play a role in extracting issues when we research about COVID-19 and public policies.