COVID-19 Vaccine Hesitancy among the Younger Generation in Japan

Abstract

Japan has vaccinated its older population; a mass vaccination program for younger citizens is underway. Accordingly, this study investigated vaccine hesitancy among younger Japanese citizens. We used online panel survey data from the Hiroshima Institute of Health Economics Research of Hiroshima University and applied probit regression models. Our study found that vaccine hesitancy among younger people was significantly higher than among older people. Moreover, vaccine hesitancy was significantly higher among younger women than younger men and inter-age-group differences in vaccine hesitancy were higher for younger men than for younger women. Regression demonstrated that subjective health status and anxiety about the future were significantly associated with vaccine hesitancy among younger women and younger men of all ages, respectively. Furthermore, marital status, university degree, anxiety about the future, and myopic view of the future had specific associations with vaccine hesitancy among younger women of different ages, while subjective health status, university degree, having children, financial literacy, household income and assets, and myopic view about the future had specific associations with vaccine hesitancy among younger men of varying ages. Therefore, these results suggest that policymakers should consider the diversity among the younger generation while developing effective, tailored communication strategies to reduce their vaccine hesitancy.

Factors Associated with COVID-19 Vaccine Hesitancy after Implementation of a Mass Vaccination Campaign

“…However, removing from the analyses participants who reported intention to vaccinate, we found that participants younger than 49 had higher odds of hesitancy than individuals between 50 and 64 years old. The literature is in agreement with higher hesitancy for younger age groups [2][3][4]6,[8][9][10]13,14,[16][17][18]20,22,24,30,33,36,37,40,46]. We categorised age using the same age groups used by the official Portuguese reports for our analysis, which indicate a similar trend [46].…”

“…Health status and having diseases were other important factors in vaccine hesitancy. This study found that participants who perceived their health status as reasonable and had two or more diseases had lower odds of hesitancy than participants with a good health perception and no diseases [8,18,34,36,40,46]. Additionally, we found that participants who felt negative emotions some days had lower odds of hesitancy.…”

“…Several cross-sectional studies have since explored COVID-19 vaccine acceptance and hesitancy and their determinants after the respective countries' vaccination program implementation, namely in European countries [2], such as the United Kingdom [15,16,20,21], Germany [15,22], Denmark [15,23], France [15], Hungary [15], Sweden [15], Italy [15], Norway [21], Poland [24], the Netherlands [25], Spain [26] and Greece [27]. Additional studies were also conducted in Saudi Arabia [28], the United States of America [13,17,21,29], South Africa [21,30], Jordan [31], Israel [32], Chile [33], China [18,21,34,35], Japan [21,36] and Australia [21], among others [21]. These studies have not only reported variation in the refusal rate of COVID-19 vaccination over sequential waves [13][14][15]18], but also on the characteristics of the individuals that reported hesitancy in getting vaccinated [13,14,18] and on the reasons behind this refusal…”

“…In these studies, COVID-19 vaccination acceptance or hesitancy varied according to age [2][3][4]6,[8][9][10]13,14,[16][17][18][20][21][22]24,30,[32][33][34][35][36][37][38], gender [3,6,10,13,14,16,18,[20][21][22]24,26,28,30,31,36], education [4,6,[8][9][10]13,14,17,18,21,22,24,…”

A Qualitative Study Regarding Messages of the COVID-19 Vaccine from Vaccinated Healthcare Providers and Healthy Adults

“…In Japan, the proportion of non-regular employees is high, especially among women and young people [27]. Household income has been reported to be a factor in vaccine hesitancy [28]. Non-regular employees are concerned not only about side effects of the vaccine, but also about the possible loss of income due to the difficulty of working as a result of side effects.…”