Response of the Japanese to COVID-19 was investigated with 2 online questionnaire surveys conducted on May 2020 [N=1,200] and on August 2020 [N=6,000]. The results showed that high anxiety led sense of discrimination and adopting prevention behaviors against infection. People in metropolitan areas seemed estimating infection risk of long rage transport lower than people in rural areas. And response to Covid-19 of the Japanese residing outside of Japan was investigated with an online survey on August 2020 [N=116]. The results showed that in many countries the respondents answered that their local governments’ policies against COVID-19 were better than the Japanese policy because of swiftness, leadership, public relations, ICT use, and so on.

The authors employed a text mining method based on published web articles to analyze how social interest in disaster evacuation and sheltering with COVID-19 changed over time. To understand social interest, the authors divided the number of COVID-19 positive cases in Japan into five phases. The results revealed a vague concern about the need for measures taken by local governments in Phase I. Furthermore, there were descriptions of actual countermeasures and training based on the heavy rain in July 2020, typhoon No. 9 (Maysak), and typhoon No. 10 (Haishen) in Phase III. Finally, in Phase V, it was possible to grasp how the social interest shifted to specific content.

The pandemic of COVID-19 has not reached convergence yet. Risk perception and willingness to cooperate measures are important for preventing the spread of infection. This study aimed to clarify the factors affecting preventive behaviors against COVID-19 infection. A questionnaire survey was conducted both in prefectures under special warning status and other prefectures and 256 responses were analyzed by structural equation modeling. As a result, people who checked the information by governments and trusted the government tended to have high normative awareness and to refrain from going out. People who have government information and higher knowledge about COVID-19, higher financial distress, or greater anxiety for unknown risk highly perceived the risk of COVID-19. Those people frequently implemented preventive measures. In thirteen prefectures under special warning status, the anxiety of unknown risk directly affected the frequency of countermeasure implementation and going out.

Digital contact tracing applications have been promoted as a tool to address the COVID-19 pandemic. The effectiveness of these applications depends on their rate of adoption. However, this appears to be low. Therefore, this study investigated the psychological factors associated with the use of a contact tracing application (COCOA) in Japan. An online survey was administered to 1000 participants living in the Tokyo metropolitan area. Respondents were classified into three groups: advocates, critics, and undecided. Our results indicated that perceptions of risk, benefit, cost, social norm and knowledge were significant prescriptive factors of COCOA usage. The results revealed that the critics group perceived low benefit and social norms appeared to hinder application adoption relative to the undecided group.

The current study aims to figure out factors related to “Infodemic” (spread of rumors) from the perspective of social psychology. We conducted an online survey on 2000 participants (age range: 15–59) from May 8 to May 11, 2020. We found that 88.7% of participants used TV to get information about COVID-19. It seemed that the people were relatively serious about COVID-19 information considering that they used about three information sources on average and easily did not trust information sources except for scientists. Besides, we found three results relating to infodemic. First, the extent of spreading rumors depended on what the rumors described. Our results showed that participants were aware of and trusted rumors which described victims nearby. Second, consumption of official online news media was associated with awareness of rumors. Third, infection anxiety and distrust for administration or media had an association with spreading rumors.

From December 2018 to December 2019, body fragments of wild birds were found in the feed tank of three poultry farms in Japan. Morphological examination and Polymerase chain reaction analysis revealed that all three cases of the wild bird’s body fragments discovered in feeds were rock pigeons (Columba livia). This report indicates that the risk of wild birds entering the feed before arriving the poultry farm. Countermeasures for contact between chickens and pathogen vectors must be ensured in poultry farms and all supply processes for all materials used in poultry farms.