Evidence-Based Design of Sustainable Social Systems During and After the COVID-19-Crisis

Research Topic
Evidence-based design of sustainable social systems during and after the COVID-19-crisis

Lead Researcher
Yuichi Imanaka, Professor, Kyoto University School of Public Health

Joint Researchers
Takayo Nakabe, Visiting Scholar, Kyoto University School of Public Health

Etsu Goto, Program-Specific Assistant Professor, Kyoto University School of Public Health

Jung-ho Shin, Program-Specific Assistant Professor, Kyoto University School of Public Health

The COVID-19 pandemic still shows no signs of abating and has brought to light a number of social issues, in particular, establishment of a political and policy-making process that allows for the rapid application of expertise, risk communication with the public, prevention of harmful rumors, securing the medical system, sharing of medical resource data, etc. Therefore, fundamental reform of the sustainable social system in Japan is an urgent task.

In order to create a new social system, we visualized the needs and issues of stakeholders (national and local governments, medical institutions, medical professionals, citizens/residents) from each perspective. Then, we reviewed the findings of domestic and international countermeasures against infections, economic policies and systems. With the purpose of building a framework for designing an effective policy package, the joint multidisciplinary research entitled “Research on Sustainable Health, Economic and Social Systems to Adapt to the COVID-19 Crises” has been conducted (2020 Kyoto University GAP Fund Program). In this project, we analyzed medical data, collected and analyzed administrative data, and conducted large-scale questionnaire surveys on public awareness/behavior.

This research project is based on these results and will be conducted in order to generate new developments; emphasizing further on a “social scientific and interdisciplinary approach,” we aim to generate findings and models that will contribute to solving social issues. We will use the data from a large-scale Internet survey (10,000 people nationwide, four times in each period) which was conducted in the previous study mentioned above, and review and analyze various models of risk communication against pandemics and economic measures against prejudice or rumors in Japan and abroad. Based on these results, we will clarify the interrelationships among policies and systems, the COVID-19 prevalence, and people’s perceptions, emotions and behaviors, providing new findings and models that contribute to solving social issues.

2021/07/02