ABSTRACT
This chapter examined how Japanese and Korean people have responded to the COVID-19 pandemic, focusing on the role of social and cultural factors in the process as of early 2021. People in both countries perceived a high level of risk at the individual and societal levels, resulting in a high level of preventive behavior. Korean respondents were more likely to experience social pressure in responding to COVID-19, presumably due to the recent experience of MERS. The level of digital health literacy was high, and societal risk and harmony seeking led to a high level of digital health literacy in both countries. The level of avoidance of COVID-19 information was low in both countries. Korean respondents searched for more details about COVID-19, and Japanese respondents felt more fatigued with COVID-19 information. Regarding the COVID-19 information, Japanese respondents cared about the correctness, while Korean respondents were concerned about whether important information was missing. The fatigue of COVID-19 information may be detrimental to information seeking of COVID-19 and lead to information avoidance of COVID-19. The findings suggest that it is essential to provide and access accurate risk information, improve digital health literacy, and deal with information avoidance amid the ongoing pandemic.
