A Cabinet Office survey last autumn shows that over 77% of people in Japan feel anxious or worried, up from the level seen before the epidemic.
The respondents who answered they felt anxious or worried accounted for 77.6% of the total, which is the highest level since the survey began in fiscal 1981, and went up from 63.2% in the previous survey in fiscal 2019, the government agency said Friday.
The health of 60.8% of the total was cited as the top source of concern, followed by post-retirement life plans, picked by 58.5%, and income and asset outlook, chosen by 55%, according to the latest survey.
On the other hand, those who were satisfied with the leisure time they were spending made up only 34.3%, down 28.4 percentage points from the previous survey.
An official in charge of the public opinion poll said that the decline can be attributed to COVID 19 restrictions and an economic slowdown caused by the virus crisis.
Among other findings were that 67.4% wanted the government to put policy priority on social security and 65.8% on coronaviruses response, while economic measures and addressing the country's aging population were highly favoured by 55.5% and 51.2%, respectively.
There were a total of 3,000 Japanese nationals aged 18 or older who were polled nationwide, and valid responses were given by 63.2% of them.
The coronaviruses may cause the government agency to not conduct the annual survey in fiscal 2020.