Photo/Illutration Crowds fill the famed scramble crossing in Tokyo’s Shibuya Ward on June 26, the first weekend after the third COVID-19 state of emergency was lifted for the capital. (Shiro Nishihata)

Workers in Japan are losing their fear of catching the novel coronavirus, have a record-high lack of trust in the government and teleworkers are heading back to the office, a new survey shows.

A total of 26.2 percent of workers said they were not worried about contracting COVID-19, up nearly 10 percentage points from January, according to a recent online survey by the Japan Productivity Center.

The center surveyed 1,100 employees aged 20 or older at companies or organizations nationwide on July 5 and 6 to assess the impact of the pandemic on workers.

The figure rose not only among senior citizens, many of whom have been vaccinated against COVID-19 as a priority group, but also in younger generations. That apparently reflects people’s growing complacency toward the virus and fatigue from being asked to exercise self-restraint to contain the pandemic.

The survey also found 76.9 percent had “little” or “no” trust in the government, the highest in the past six surveys. The results showed states of emergency and pre-emergency measures have become less effective in changing people’s behavior as the measures have been repeatedly imposed.

The center began conducting the survey in May last year. It also asked workers about their concerns about infections in the January and April surveys.

In January, 35.2 percent of respondents said they were “very" worried about getting infected, but the figure dropped to 25.5 percent in April and to 23.5 percent in July.

Meanwhile, 20.5 percent said they were “not much” concerned about contracting the virus in the latest survey, up from 17.4 percent in April and 13 percent in January.

The percentage of those who said they were “not at all” worried about becoming infected also rose from 3.6 percent in January to 4.4 percent in April and 5.7 percent in July.

The latest survey was conducted as the government has been striving to inoculate as many elderly people as possible. But the figure of those who said they were “not much” or “not at all” concerned about infections rose across all age groups, reaching 30.2 percent in people in their 20s and 32.2 percent in those in their 30s.

As for outings, 15.3 percent said they were “not much” or “not at all” refraining from going out for nonessential purposes, up from 12.3 percent in April and 10.8 percent in January.

Meanwhile, 20.4 percent said they were teleworking, down from 31.5 percent recorded in May 2020, when the survey first asked the question about the work style.

The figure has since remained at around 20 percent, showing that teleworking has not been widely adopted. The government has encouraged teleworking to help curb the spread of COVID-19.

Of those working remotely, 57.6 percent said they have reported to work for “three days or more” over the most recent week.

That was up 8.8 percentage points from April and the highest in the past surveys, indicating that people are working more frequently at the office than from home.

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