Abstract This survey article reviews economic research on the COVID-19 pandemic in Japan, focusing on how economists provided policy-relevant evidence while the crisis was still unfolding. Japan experienced lower infection and death rates than many other countries, and its containment measures relied mainly on requests rather than legal restrictions. Even so, the pandemic caused large economic disruptions and exposed problems in medical capacity and policy coordination. The review highlights several findings. Voluntary behavioural responses to information and perceived risk played an important role in reducing mobility. High-frequency private data, especially on consumption, mobility, and household finances, helped researchers track economic behaviour faster and in greater detail than official statistics. Evaluations of major support programmes for households and firms suggest that generous assistance helped cushion the shock but was not always well targeted. This paper also includes a case study of the author’s experience producing real-time policy evidence, which suggests that timely research depends not only on empirical methods, but also on preparation before a crisis: access to usable data, cooperation with private firms, and channels for communicating results.
