I have tried to Google a bit regarding this issue. It would seem like the knowledge level regarding HIV/AIDS is not so bad i Japan. However, there seem to be a serious gap between knowledge on one hand and attitudes and practices on the other.
Below is a quote from a report:"Japan's Response to the Spread of
HIV/AIDS":
Executive Summary:
The State of the Epidemic in Japan
There are an estimated 20,000 people living with HIV/AIDS in Japan as
of 2003. With prevalence still so low, HIV/AIDS is generally regarded as
a disease that only affects faraway countries or other people not close to
home. The epidemic was first identified domestically among hemophiliacs
who had been infected through contaminated blood products. When the
contamination was linked to the failure of pharmaceutical companies and
government officials to exercise proper safeguards, scandal erupted. This
so-called tainted blood scandal peaked during the early to mid-1990s and
became the climactic point in the history of HIV/AIDS in Japan, but once
a legal settlement was reached, the issue of AIDS appeared to have been
put to rest in the eyes of the general public. Ever since, the level of interest
in HIV/AIDS in Japanese society has remained very low.
Statistics reveal, however, that the number of newly reported HIV infections
and AIDS diagnoses continues to climb steadily, making Japan an
exception among high-income countries. Experts point out that the epidemic
may be spreading much more quickly than available figures indicate,
and that this increase may be linked to changes in the sexual behavior of
young people, greater migration across national borders, and delays in the
early identification of infection due to inadequate availability of testing
and counseling. Unless effective preventive action is taken, the number of
infected is likely to more than double to 50,000 by the year 2010.
Full report:
http://www.jcie.or.jp/thinknet/pdfs/hiv.pdf
This is a very important topic!