General Vaccination Readiness in Japan: Results from the JASTIS 2023 Study

Abstract

General vaccine hesitancy is a global concern. Clarification of the general vaccination readiness and psychological factors comprising it is an important issue. Previous studies have reported that Japan has one of the lowest vaccine confidence levels worldwide. However, the status of other psychological factors comprising general vaccination readiness in Japan remains unclear.Therefore, we aimed to clarify the status of seven psychological factors comprising general vaccination readiness and their patterns in Japan. This descriptive study utilized data from a largescale nationwide internet survey (JASTIS 2023 study, n = 31,037). The seven psychological factors were assessed using the 7C of vaccination readiness scale. Cluster analysis was performed using k-means++ clustering to clarify the patterns. Of the seven factors, support for social monitoring of people refusing vaccination (e.g., vaccine passport) was very low among the participants. Cluster analysis showed that the participants' vaccination readiness could be classified into six patterns, of which the very low vaccination readiness cluster, with the lowest scores for most of the psychological factors, accounted for 11.1% and was more common among those aged 30-49 years (13.1-16.4%). Individuals comprising this cluster may tend to refuse to receive any recommended vaccines.