AIDS-HIV in Japan

Sex Education Booklet Spawns Controversy in Japan

September 16, 2002

A sex-education booklet for Japanese teenagers has triggered a dispute about whether teaching them contraceptive methods in detail is too radical as abortions among the young continue to rise. At the center of the controversy is the 32-page "Love and Body Book," compiled by the Mothers' and Children's Health and Welfare Association, a privately funded organization supervised by the Health, Labor and Welfare Ministry.

Using diagrams of male and female anatomy to demonstrate what physical changes teenagers experience through adolescence, the booklet also explains contraceptive measures with matter-of-fact illustrations explaining how to use male and female condoms. The association had distributed 1.27 million copies of the booklet to municipal governments across the nation as of early May targeting students at junior high schools ages 12 to 15. It is part of the ministry's project to curb unwanted pregnancies, the spread of STDs and other sex-related problems among teenagers. The number of abortions among girls under 20 years old reached 46,511 cases in 2001 to hit a record high for the sixth consecutive year, according to a health ministry survey. The number means nearly 13 girls in every 1,000 ages 15 to 19 underwent abortion operations, and eight in 1,000 ages 12 to 19 underwent the procedure. The number of pregnancies brought to term by teenagers less than 19 years old numbered 20,966 in 2001, according to a preliminary report by the health ministry, up 34 percent from 15,621 five years ago. The controversy prompted some local governments to have second thoughts and stop handing the booklet out to children, while the association scrapped plans for further distribution and collected unwanted copies. Contraceptive methods are not in the ministry's list of items to teach junior high school students. In a bid to appease opponents, the association distributed inserts for the booklet to the local governments in August arguing, "the best way to avoid these troubles (disease infection and unwanted pregnancy), is to refrain from having sex."

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April-June" 

 Associated Press    (08.23.06):: Chisaki Watanabe

          Japan 's Health Ministry recently announced an increase in new HIV infections that may indicate the infection rate is accelerating.  In three-months, from April to June of this year, 248 cases were found. This was the largest number since July-September in 2004, when 209 infections were reported, according to ministry official Yasuaki Hashimoto. The ministry did not give a cause for the increase.  There was an increase in the number of infections among middle-aged Japanese.  One reason for this may be that more people in this age group are being tested. HIV testing is widely available in Japan . 

          Japan has 17,000 HIV/AIDS patients, a low number compared to many other countries. According to UNAIDS, Japan 's infection rate is 1 in 7,529, much lower than the 1 in 110 rate in Thailand . However, the rate at which HIV has spread in Japan in the past 10 years is similar to that of developing countries.  Japanese tend to have low HIV knowledge and to view it as a foreign problem.  "We are greatly concerned about the trend," said Hashimoto.

          According to the ministry's AIDS Surveillance Committee two-thirds of newly infected patients are in their 20s and 30s, but infections among older people are also increasing.  The ratio of those newly infected in their 40s and 50s rose to 31 percent in April-June, up from 22 percent in the previous quarter, said the committee's statement.

          Hashimoto said the increase could be due to June's awareness campaigns that included longer clinic hours so that older people, often in managerial positions, could be tested.

          Reported cases of HIV, which have been rising since 2002, hit a record high of 832 cases in 2005. The number of reported AIDS cases decreased in 2005 after a two-year increase. Experts say that an accurate number of cases in Japan is not known, estimating the number to be two to four times the reported totals.

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