The fastest aging society in the world has long struggled to speak to its youth. That’s a disconnect that is turning deadly in the pandemic.
The difficulty of persuading young adults to change their lifestyle to prevent the spread of COVID-19 has challenged countries around the world. Yet nowhere is more at stake than in Japan, where nearly a third of residents are over 65 and the response to the virus depends on voluntary cooperation.
Until now, the nation has relied on people to change their behavior in its overwhelmingly successful fight against the virus, as authorities lack the legal capacity to enforce the blockades. But while the call for cooperation worked in the early days of fighting an unknown pathogen, like their global peers, younger Japanese are increasingly affected by virus fatigue. That has left officials scrambling to persuade a demographic that is less likely to be affected by a severe COVID-19 attack, but more likely to transmit the virus.
Government officials and health experts have been exasperated by their inability to communicate with young people and have at times expressed disbelief that they do not read newspapers or watch television, the methods commonly used by the US government. Japan to reach a wide audience.
Younger people are “one of the key factors in controlling the spread of the virus,” 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 the public a health message for “.
Authorities have tried various approaches to get young people to join in, as winter puts Japan’s less restrictive strategy to the test and cases soar. Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga has appealed to their emotions, pleading with them to think about the lives of their grandparents. Japanese virus czar Yasutoshi Nishimura invoked self-interest, raising the specter of a more difficult job-search environment should the pandemic drag on and continue to affect the economy.
Mixed messages
Other attempts have failed. In August, Tokyo Governor Yuriko Koike released a video with popular YouTuber Fuwa-chan, where the two discussed lifestyle changes to help fight the virus. The video got around 370 thousand views. A separate episode behind the scenes, where Fuwa-chan told jokes while putting on makeup and worried about how to act with the governor, but said little about the virus, surpassed a million.
Suga himself, who is fighting the collapse of approval ratings during the latest virus surge, sought advice this week on how to use social media to better communicate his policies, according to a report.
In interviews with Bloomberg News, several students and young professionals say the government’s communication has not been empathic with their situation and is not convincing.
“During the prime minister’s press conferences, there are no words of comfort or gratitude for young people; Instead, it only says that the young are infecting the elderly and must stop. It’s not okay, ”said Koki Ozora, a 22-year-old college student who runs a youth mental health hotline. He criticized politicians’ custom of holding dinners even when virus cases spread and called on authorities to show more sympathy for young people.
“People in government tend to be more mainstream and like to rely on methods that have been used before,” said Makoto Shimoaraiso, a member of the coronavirus strategy office at the Cabinet Secretariat. “This is something that I think many countries are struggling with.”
In Canada, Hollywood actor Ryan Reynolds recorded a message in August telling young people to act more responsibly. A German commercial hailing a young couple who were addicted to television as heroes went viral in November. However, these measures also appeared to have a limited impact amid rising virus cases.
Without voice
About a fifth of the more than 300,000 confirmed infections in Japan are among people in their 20s, the highest proportion of any age group. Because they are younger and more mobile, that age demographic is also the one most likely to transmit the virus and be a part of super-spread events.
While Japan’s youth are interested in social issues such as climate change and gender equality, most young people do not see politics as a way to bring about change, said Kazuma Ito, founder of PoliPoli, 22, a website that helps communicate concerns of the younger generation to politicians.
“It is very difficult for young people to have a voice in politics,” he said.
One way to engage young people about COVID-19 is to put the well-being of your social group on your shoulders, said Dominique Brossard, a professor specializing in science communication at the University of Wisconsin in Madison.
He pointed to the decades-old slogan “Friends Don’t Allow Friends to Drink and Drive” in the United States as a successful campaign that helped reduce the incidence of young people driving while intoxicated. Simply passing on information about the virus can be of limited effectiveness with the younger generation, who are used to being bombarded with a constant stream of content.
The pandemic has also robbed young people of economic opportunities as jobs disappear. Many of Japan’s most sought-after jobs at large companies begin with being hired immediately after college, but the job-to-applicant ratio for those vacancies was at a six-year low in 2020, with 122,000 places less anticipated. compared to the previous year. .
“Even if young people make a great effort to stay home, there are few benefits that we can receive in the future,” said Lily Yoshida, a 19-year-old college student.
–With the help of Lisa Du.
It may interest you:
Coronavirus Deaths Rise to 153,639 in Mexico; there are one million 806,849 cases
–
