AIDS

The good news is that the rate of AIDS and HIV infection in Japan is low compared with most other countries. Last year (2003) there were only 627 reported new cases of HIV contraction. The bad news is that while for the past 10 years the rate of infection has been going down in every other industrialized nation, in Japan the rate has continued to rise, causing some experts to predict a coming AIDS "explosion". The problem seems to be caused by a low level of AIDS awareness in Japan where it is considered a "foreigners' disease" and it is thus believed that one is safe unless one has sex with a foreigner.