Vaccines and Japanese Teens: Survey Finds Mixed Views

The Nippon Foundation conducted a recent survey aimed at 1,000 young people in their late teens. When asked about their current COVID-19 vaccination status, 19.6% of respondents answered that they were either vaccinated (including only the first dose) or had already booked appointments to get vaccinated. A further 36.6% wanted to get vaccinated, but had not been able to get an appointment yet. However, there were also 21.3% who were not going to get vaccinated and 22.5% who had not decided yet whether they would or not.

Of those who had been vaccinated or were scheduled to be, the workplace was the location for 58.2% followed by local authority vaccination sites with 19.2%.

The main reasons participants gave for getting vaccinated were that they wanted to “prevent being infected” (76.9%) and “prevent people around being infected” (55.5%).

On the other hand, the main reasons given by those not planning to get vaccinated or who were undecided were that they were worried about short- and long-term side effects, as well as lack of adequate information. For each of those reasons, more than 30% of respondents agreed. Those who answered “young people’s health isn’t affected much if they get COVID-19” accounted for only 2.5%.

Although there is a lot of information about the COVID-19 vaccine available, when respondents were asked about what they knew to be true or false about it, less than half, at 45.3%, were aware that it’s true they “can get vaccinated for free” and only 38.2% knew that it is false that there is a “risk of infertility for women.” The survey results clearly indicated that the information being distributed by the government, local authorities, and the media, is not fully reaching young people.

The survey was conducted online from July 16 through July 20, targeting 1,000 young people aged 17 to 19.

(Translated from Japanese. Banner photo © Pixta)