Determinants of Psychological Well-Being in South Korea and Japan During the COVID- 19 Pandemic-to-Endemic Transition: A Two-Wave Panel Study

Imagine the human mind as a garden. Sometimes, the weather gets terrible—storms, droughts, or a sudden freeze. In the world of science, researchers who study these "storms" are called mental health experts. They look at how big events, like a global pandemic, affect the flowers in our garden: our feelings of sadness (depression), our sense of being alone (loneliness), and how happy we feel about our lives overall (life satisfaction). For a long time, scientists mostly looked at one garden at a time. But to really understand how different soils react to the same storm, you have to compare them side-by-side. This is where the story gets interesting: if two neighbors face the exact same hurricane, do their gardens suffer in the same way, or does one lose its roses while the other loses its tomatoes?

This paper takes a close look at two very similar neighbors: South Korea and Japan. Both countries are close by, have similar cultures, and went through the same global health crisis together. The researchers wanted to see how the mental health of people in these two countries changed as the world moved from the scary "pandemic" phase to the "endemic" phase—basically, when the virus stopped being an emergency and just became a part of everyday life. They tracked the same group of people twice, once in the spring and again in the fall of 2023, asking them about their sadness, their loneliness, and their life happiness. The goal was to figure out what specific things made people feel better or worse in each country. Did family arguments matter more in one place? Did money or age matter more in the other? By comparing these two gardens, the researchers hoped to find out that one size does not fit all when it comes to helping people feel better.

The Big Picture: Two Neighbors, Different Gardens

The researchers, a team from universities in South Korea and Japan, set out to answer a simple but tricky question: When two countries face the exact same crisis, do their people feel the same way? They focused on three specific feelings: depression (feeling down or hopeless), loneliness (feeling disconnected from others), and life satisfaction (how much you like your life).

They gathered data from 1,614 adults—900 from South Korea and 714 from Japan. They asked these people the same questions twice: once in March/April 2023 and again in October/November 2023. This timing was special because it happened right after the World Health Organization declared that the global health emergency was over. It was the perfect moment to see if people's moods improved once the "emergency" label was removed.

The Surprising Twist: Sadness Was the Same, But Loneliness Was Not

Here is the first big discovery: The two countries were actually quite similar when it came to depression. The levels of sadness and hopelessness were about the same in both places. It was like two gardens that had the same amount of wilted leaves.

However, the gardens looked very different when it came to loneliness and life satisfaction.

• Japan: People in Japan reported feeling significantly more lonely and less satisfied with their lives compared to their Korean neighbors. The difference was huge. On a scale where higher numbers mean more loneliness, the average Japanese person scored a 2.40, while the average Korean scored a 1.65.
• South Korea: Koreans felt less lonely and more happy with their lives overall.

The researchers suggest this might be because Japan has a lot more people living alone and an older population, which can make people feel more isolated. In contrast, Korean society might rely more heavily on family and close relationships, which could act as a buffer against loneliness, even if it brings other kinds of stress.

What Makes People Feel Better (or Worse)?

The most fascinating part of the study is why people felt the way they did. The "ingredients" for happiness and sadness were different in each country.

In South Korea: It's All About Relationships
For Koreans, the biggest factors affecting their mental health were people.

• If a Korean person had more arguments with their family or colleagues, they were more likely to feel depressed and lonely.
• Being married was a strong shield against feeling down.
• Basically, in Korea, your mental health garden was very sensitive to the weather of your relationships. If your family was fighting, your garden suffered.

In Japan: It's About Status and Age
For Japanese people, the biggest factors were circumstances.

• Money and Education: In Japan, having a higher income or a university degree was a major protector against loneliness and depression. If you had less money or education, you were much more likely to feel distressed.
• Age: Older people in Japan actually felt less lonely and more satisfied with life than younger people. This is the opposite of what you might expect, but it fits with the idea that older Japanese adults have settled into their lives.
• Interestingly, family arguments didn't seem to hurt Japanese mental health as much as they did for Koreans. Instead, the stress of not being able to go out or having your daily routine messed up was a bigger issue.

Did Things Get Better After the Emergency Ended?

The researchers checked to see if people felt better in the fall (after the emergency ended) compared to the spring. The answer was: not really.

• The levels of loneliness and life satisfaction stayed pretty much the same.
• The only thing that changed slightly was depression, which went up a tiny bit in both countries.

This suggests that just because the "emergency" is officially over, it doesn't mean people instantly feel better. The mental health garden doesn't bounce back just because the storm warning is lifted; it takes time to recover, and for some, the damage is already settled.

What This Means for the Future

The study concludes that we can't treat everyone the same way when we try to help them feel better.

• If you want to help people in South Korea, you might need to focus on fixing family fights and helping people get along with their coworkers.
• If you want to help people in Japan, you might need to focus on economic support, helping older adults stay connected, and making sure people with lower incomes or education levels get extra support.

The researchers also point out that loneliness is a unique problem. It's not the same as being depressed. You can be lonely without being clinically depressed, and you can be depressed without being lonely. Because of this, governments and health organizations should treat loneliness as its own special problem to solve, not just a side effect of sadness.

In short, even though South Korea and Japan are neighbors who faced the same storm, their gardens need different kinds of care. One needs more help with relationships, and the other needs more help with resources and connection. Understanding these differences is the first step to making sure everyone's garden can bloom again.