The influence of smartphone use on increased risk of feeling lonely has been recognized as a global public health concern. However, it is unclear whether this influence has changed during the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, during which smartphones have become a particularly important means of communication due to health safety measures restricting personal interactions. We used Hiroshima University’s online survey data collected from 18–28 February 2022, to assess the impact of smartphone use on loneliness in Japan. The final sample included 2630 participants aged over 20 years, with loneliness measured using the UCLA scale and smartphone use calculated as the duration of usage in minutes/day. Weighted logit regression analysis was used to examine the association between smartphone use and loneliness, with other demographic, socioeconomic, and psychological characteristics as explanatory variables. Contrary to conventional evidence, our findings show that smartphone use mitigated the risk of loneliness during the pandemic. This was especially true among females under 65 years old. We found that age, subjective health status, future anxiety, and depression impacted this relationship. The findings of this study can help guide policymaking by showing the importance of providing adequate digital platforms to manage loneliness and mental health during times of isolation.

Although Japan has a well-established cancer screening program and has implemented several initiatives to increase screening rates, levels of cancer screening can be further improved. Based on a rational decision-making framework, this study examines the role of financial literacy and financial education, which measure peoples’ knowledge about investment and savings, respectively, in improving cancer screening rates in Japan. The main data were extracted from Osaka University’s Preference Parameters Study for 2011. The dependent variable was the number of cancer screenings while the two main independent variables were financial literacy and financial education. Ordered probit regression models were run to test the association between financial literacy, financial education, and the number of cancer screenings. The results showed a positive relationship between financial education and cancer screening behavior in Japan, while no significant association was observed between financial literacy and screening behavior. Furthermore, according to findings stratified by three age groups, the positive association between financial education and cancer screening behavior was particularly evident in 50- to 59-year-olds, while the effects of other demographic, socioeconomic, and risky health behavior variables were not consistent. It is imperative that implementation of more financial education programs is an effective intervention to encourage cancer screening behavior in Japanese populations.

Pandemic fatigue has threatened the efforts to contain the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) worldwide; thus, government-mandated preventive measures have declined. The Japanese government has implemented several methods to address COVID-19′s spread, including hand hygiene, mask requirements, and social distancing. This study is the first to examine the socioeconomic factors affecting Japan’s decline in COVID-19 prevention measures. It utilized the Preference Parameters Study of the Osaka University Institute of Social and Economic Research data of the 2021 and 2022 waves. With approximately 1580 observations, we detected a 10%, 4%, and 13% decline in hand hygiene practice, mask-wearing, and social distancing, respectively, between January 2021 and January 2022. Men were more likely to dislike the hand hygiene practice and mask-wearing and were also more reluctant to maintain social distancing. Moreover, financially satisfied individuals were positively associated with a decrease in the hand hygiene practice, while those with greater assets were more likely to dislike maintaining social distancing. People who exercised regularly were less likely to abandon the hand hygiene practices. Our results highlighted the significance of selective prevention programs targeting specific groups to promote compliance and lead to more effective pandemic management and less fatigue or discontentment.

The prolonged COVID-19 pandemic has exacerbated existing socioeconomic and health risk factors and added additional dimensions to the loneliness problem. Considering the temporal extension of COVID-19, which exposes people to various loneliness conditions, we examined the development of loneliness and changing risk factors based on age and gender. We used longitudinal data from Hiroshima University’s nationwide survey in Japan, conducted before and during the pandemic, to categorize loneliness into three types: long-term (feeling of loneliness experienced both before and during the pandemic), post-pandemic (feeling of loneliness experienced throughout the whole pandemic period), and fresh (feeling of loneliness experienced only in the last year of the pandemic). Loneliness categorization is important because the prolonged existence of the COVID-19 pandemic has added additional dimensions to the loneliness problem, which existing studies rarely identify. As a result, the distinction between long-term and fresh loneliness remains unexplained. The weighted logit regression results revealed that many Japanese people have remained or became lonely during the pandemic and identified variations based on gender, age, and changes in socioeconomic and health characteristics. More precisely, almost 52% of the participants experienced long-term loneliness, while 8% of the participants experienced post-pandemic loneliness, and nearly 5% experienced fresh loneliness. Age and having children were associated with long-term loneliness; gender, age, leaving full-time employment, financial literacy, change in health status, and change in depression were associated with post-pandemic loneliness; and gender, having children, living in rural areas, change in household assets, financial literacy, changes in health status, and changes in depression were associated with fresh loneliness. These results indicated that long-term, post-pandemic, and fresh loneliness have distinct characteristics. The Japanese government should devise distinctive solutions for people suffering from varying loneliness before and during the pandemic rather than adopting a generalized approach.

Although studies have explored how loneliness varies between rural and urban areas during the COVID-19 pandemic, the results have been inconsistent, and most studies are observational. Therefore, it remains unclear how urban–rural differences affected loneliness in a pandemic. Our study uses nationwide data to clarify this, covering periods before and during the pandemic. We analyze a longitudinal dataset from Hiroshima University’s Household Behavior and Finance Survey, which collected demographic, socioeconomic, and psychological characteristics of Japanese adults in 2020, 2021, and 2022, thus reflecting the COVID-19 pandemic timeline. The results show that approximately 50% of those surveyed experienced long-term loneliness, while about 6.5% developed loneliness during the pandemic. Although our weighted logit regression models showed few differences in loneliness during the pandemic between urban and rural areas, socioeconomic changes, such as beginning to live alone, leaving full-time employment, and decreased financial satisfaction, were identified as high-risk factors for loneliness, and their impact varied between rural and urban areas. Our results reflect that rural–urban differences have an effect on people’s loneliness during a pandemic but need to be considered together with socioeconomic changes. This knowledge can aid governments and healthcare providers in identifying those most at risk of loneliness within urban–rural regional boundaries.

Although the traditional sources of financial knowledge in Japan are financial advisors and investment groups, the digital era and artificial intelligence have made other sources of information, such as social media and mass media, more influential. As such, it has become important to examine the socioeconomic, demographic, and psychological factors influencing the use of these information sources in the context of investment decisions. However, little research has been carried out to examine such associations using a large-scale nationwide dataset. We fill this gap by utilizing a dataset comprising almost 65,000 active investors from one of the largest online security companies in Japan, ensuring the representativeness and generalizability of our results. We show that active investors are more inclined to use social media and mass media than financial advisors and investment groups. The probit regression model shows that the use of each of the four sources of information is strongly shaped by an individual’s characteristics, which, to some extent, are not mutually exclusive for each source type. The study results imply that the government should regulate and monitor the quality and accuracy of the information disseminated by mass media and social media and educate investors on how to critically evaluate and verify the information that they receive.