It might not seem unusual that Toshihiro Oishi, a 25-year-old gay man, is infected with the virus that causes AIDS. What makes Oishi unusual is that he is one of only four people in Japan to have ever publicly admitted being infected.
"Most people can't even tell their close family members or neighbors," said Oishi, explaining that AIDS patients and virus carriers in Japan fear discrimination, social ostracism and the loss of their jobs. Most hospitals in Japan refuse to treat people infected with the virus, he said.But Oishi hopes things are about to change. This port city outside Tokyo is hosting the Tenth International Conference on AIDS, the major annual gathering of scientists and others involved in research, prevention and treatment of the disease.
This year's conference is the first to be held in Asia and will call attention to what health officials call the "explosive" spread of AIDS in places like Thailand and India.
Asia is expected to have 10 million infected people by the year 2000 and will become the center of the epidemic, surpassing Africa in the number of new infections each year, according to the World Health Organization.
But for Japan itself, an insular country that has had fewer than 800 reported cases of AIDS, the conference means coming face to face with a disease that many people here have regarded as a problem only for foreigners.
Advocates for AIDS patients and public health officials hope that the conference will prove a catalyst for change, showing the Japanese that AIDS exists in their country and is spreading, and forcing the government to improve its programs for prevention and treatment.
Indeed, with the eyes of the world on Japan, the government is trying to avoid embarrassments such as occurred last October when Alexander Martin, an American playwright with AIDS, was denied accommodation at 18 Tokyo hotels.
The Ministry of Health and Welfare has appealed to hotels, restaurants and hospitals in Yokohama not to reject those infected by the human immunodeficiency virus, or HIV, who are expected to make up about 1,000 of the 10,000 people attending the conference.
The Yokohama city government distributed a videotape to hotels that explains that it is not possible to get AIDS by handling the luggage of infected people, by serving them in restaurants or by cleaning their rooms. The city also printed 200,000 brochures about AIDS and sent one to every home, restaurant and shop in the vicinity of the convention center.
In the past couple of years it has become clear AIDS is spreading faster in Asia than anywhere else. So the fact that this is the first conference in Asia has been emphasized as a justification for holding the meeting here.
Japan has had only 764 reported AIDS cases as of the end of June, including people who have died. By contrast, the United States, with only twice the population of Japan, has had about 402,000 reported cases as of the end of June, according to the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Japan has only 3,075 reported cases of HIV infection, although many experts estimate there may actually be as many as 20,000 to 30,000 cases that have not been reported, including people who have not been tested.
Experts say the incidence of AIDS is low because the country is somewhat isolated and drug abuse is rare. In addition, with the birth control pill banned for health reasons, condoms are the most common method of birth control.
About 60 percent of the AIDS patients and HIV carriers are hemophiliacs, who until 1985 were treated with contaminated blood clotting products imported from the United States.
About 40 percent of Japan's hemophiliacs are infected with HIV, and about 160 victims or their survivors are suing the government and Japanese pharmaceutical companies.
They say the United States began heat-treating blood products to kill the AIDS virus as early as 1983, but Japan's government and companies ignored the risks until mid-1985.