This study examines the factors involved in the spread of digital transformation (DX) in Japan, which had previously been lagging in digitalization, during the COVID-19 pandemic, which began in 2020. To accomplish this, we analyzed 8,297 news articles that mentioned either “digital transformation” or “digitalization” during the three-year period from 2019 to 2021. We found that the public sector first began instituting DX policies soon after the pandemic broke out and was then followed by the private sector, meaning that the public and private sectors became actively involved in DX during the pandemic.