[2] Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) first came to attention in the 1980s in the United States, followed by global interest in the years that followed.
Due to poor media coverage and the lack of momentum from activist groups, large misconceptions about the disease, homosexuals, and foreigners spread about the general population.
[citation needed] People were reluctant to get help during the offset of the disease due to the country's conservatism in dealing with issues surrounding sexual orientation.
[4] Initially, the disease was seen in hemophiliacs receiving it from tainted blood supply in the early 1980s, however, in the mid 80s to the present, there was increasing prevalence in homosexual and then heterosexual demographics.
[citation needed] In 1989, HIV-infected hemophiliacs filed lawsuits against Japan's Ministry of Health, Labour, and Welfare and five pharmaceutical companies.
The companies were accused of importing blood products from the United States without heating them with the knowledge that doing so has serious repercussions and risks.
[citation needed] The first official report of HIV/AIDS was a male artist who lived in America for years and then returned to Japan.
The continued trend of homosexual infection and the portrayal in the media of AIDS as a "foreign" disease gave the illusion that native Japanese heterosexuals were at low risk.