I know this's silly, but how is HIV situation in Japan?
 

I'm not sure, but compare to other country, Japan's HIV story is a bit quiet.

Is this mean Japan has lower infection ratio than other country? or their sex ed system is good?

Interesting.

I'd say it's only logic the HIV rate is low among conservative countries. It would be really good if this was due to an appropriate use of contraceptives such as condoms.

What do you mean "conservative countries"? Do you think Japan is a "conservative country"?

con·ser·va·tive

adj.
1. Favoring traditional views and values; tending to oppose change.
2. Traditional or restrained in style: a conservative dark suit.
3. Moderate; cautious: a conservative estimate.

Yes, according to these definitions above, I do think Japan is a conservative country. Then again, I have not been there myself nor am I an all-things-Japanese expert, so I might be wrong, but at least this is how Japan is seen by many people, because -let's face it- the most traditional aspects of Japan is mainly what attracts people into visiting this particular country, and I am pretty sure the Japanese tourism industry wouldn't have it any other way... :rolleyes:

1. I guess I can understand from the impressions the media might give you of Japan, but having lived there, I wouldn't call Japan a "conservative" country. There are "national values" and social norms in Japan, but it is not a country where the majority of people follow any religious values.

It is interesting you bring up "change" because that is one of Japan's fortes: adoption and change. The ability of Japan to hold onto history and at the same time adapt to change is very unique (to overgeneralize).

2. Style wise as well, Japan holds onto the traditional while also being on the cutting edge.

3. These aren't the first words that would come to my mind when describing Japanese culture.

If Japan really was sexually conservative, places like love hotels would go out of business.

Who said anything about religious values? Traditional does not imply having strong religious convictions. I never said Japan was the religious kind of conservative.

I didn't bring up "change", it was in the definiton I quoted. And ok, each and every single word used to define the term CONSERVATIVE does not apply to what would be an accurate picture of Japan nowadays, but whatever, I will not argue with you if you want to deny that there are certain aspects of the Japanese culture that can be labeled as conservative. To me it is a fact, and therefore this MAY be ONE of the many reasons why it has a low HIV rate.

I am not trying to get into an argument.
Well we are talking about sexuality, right? The question is why does Japan have such a low HIV rate (if that is in fact the case).

You introduced the idea that Japan is conservative, therefore they have a low HIV rate. I am just trying to flesh that thought out a bit.

Generally sexually conservative countries or areas are also very religious. It doesn't really matter what religion it is.

I think if the HIV rate in Japan really is very low it is because the majority of Japanese never have sex with anyone but other Japanese. Japan is an island country, so that itself gives a level of protection.

I agree with you that Japan is a conservative country, and traditional/family values (though not really based on religion here) do tend to run deep, especially outside of the bigger cities, and may in fact have an impact on the low HIV rate, though there is probably other factors involved.

I would think the low amount of HIV in the country can be directly correlated with the low amount of chances for HIV to be introduced into the community.

I guess I am not seeing what these conservative traditional family values are that are keeping Japan HIV rates low.

Japan has a HIV rate of 0.1%, compared to America's 0.6%. I would hardly say Japan is 6x more sexually conservative than America is. That's a hard argument to make, I think.

In my experience of near 7 years here I have a complete opposite point of view. I believe it's the inability of Japan to change which is causing many of the issues we have here in terms of the economy.

I agree though that probably the main reason that HIV rates here would be low is because of the relatively closed borders and that most Japanese do not sleep around with foreigners all that much.

Nonsense as usual. How do you EVER get to know about Japan when you don't even read or write Japanese?

Why don't you change first?

Do you live here?

How is it nonsense to have an opinion? If you don't agree with my opinion then debate that. Whether or not I read or write or speak the language fluently doesn't mean I live in a bubble in which I can't make some informed opinions after many years living here.

What is your explanation for Japan having a stagnant or declining economy now for the best part of the last 15+ years?

Please make a new thread and go there.

I think this is a little off topic, as we are talking about, essentially, the culture of sexuality in Japan, which is very different from the Japanese economy.

Yeah I agree. I do get sick and tired of the idea though that it's impossible for me to have any sort of imformed opinion of what Japan is like purely because I'm not fluent in the language. I think after nearly 7 years here a few things do filter in that allow me to make some comments on what are only my opinions ;)

Who are you agreeing with?

Of course everyone has a right to an opinion.

Just agreeing that the economy discussion was getting off topic.

Thank you for every comment.

For me (only in my opinion) Japan is quite not relatively conservative. Japanese tend to follow social norms and culture but in the other hand they have very great creativity too. And eventhough Japanese people tend to follow general social culture, they still are divided into many sub groups that have their unique social value.

What I like to describe Japanese people is "Cutting edge prople with discipline"

I don't know how to describe, but normally cutting edge people tend to be more rebellious, but for Japan, they're edgy yet they still follow social rules. That's amazing.

Not quite what I said. I said this might be one of the many reasons.

I agree. The fact that most Japanese people choose to have sex with people from their own race certainly makes it unlikely to get infected cause the virus does not get passed along.

i would like to point out that the number of HIV carrier　acquired the AIDS virus through intravenous drug use is so small.From 2003~2006,only 7 people.UK 203,GERMANY 219.Infection from mothers to infants　is also rare in Japan.

But Japan is the only one first world country in which the number of new HIV carrier is increasing.Someday, might catch up with other "advanced"countries.
The condom and avoiding intravenous drug use are common precaution all over the world.Too overrate sex tendency is a little misleading.

Illegal intravenous drug use is very rare in Japan, so it is easy to see why that is hardly a factor. I am not sure what you mean by "overrate sex tendency" but if people in Japan are going to transmit HIV, chances are it is going to be through sexual contact. Geographically, Japan is an island nation, which gives it an extra layer of protection. When I moved to Japan my employer required I take a physical exam, which included an HIV test.

I think it is safe to say legal foreign residents are more likely to engage in relationships with Japanese natives than tourists will, so if my employer is the norm, then the reason there is so little HIV in Japan is not the conservative nature of society, but because the access for HIV infected individuals is limited.

What, really??? So an extremely competent professional is going to have trouble getting a job in Japan if he's found to have AIDS? Even if he openly declares it and proves he's able to do the job right? Cause I know people who are HIV carriers and haven't developed the disease and they lead perfectly normal lives. I would definitely sue a company if I was thrown out for having AIDS. That is really bad on Japan.

I would not have been thrown out for having HIV, it was a part of the hiring process. Along with a criminal background check, and many other tests.

I am not sure this is so surprising. I was hired to teach high school students English, so I would interacting with potentially hundreds of people in a day. Considering the high application rate, it would be very easy to find someone just as qualified who wasn't HIV positive.

I am sorry what exactly do you mean by "cutting edge people"? Like Japan is some sort of technological utopia? This is a common stereotype people who have never lived here (Japan) tend to have, you should give this article a read: BBC News - Revealing Japan's low-tech belly

This article just emphasizes the point I was making above. the CULTURE leads the technology, not the other way around. For everything I see in Japan that makes my jaw drop in terms of technological advance I don't have at home, there is something that shocks me because it doesn't exist.

Again, culture leads the technology. If people wanted central heat, they could have it. But the public in Japan seems to prefer localized heat, rather then centralized heat. (More than one Japanese person has said to me "Why are you heating rooms no one is in?") So the shocker is cold houses in winter, but that led to heated toilet seats, which are as about as close to heaven as you are going to get on earth.

Just because a technology we take for granted in our home country doesn't exist in Japan does not make Japan backwards or behind the times. If they don't need it, they don't need it.

Rick that story is very much my experience of living in Japan.

This following quotes from the article completely describe my experiences here in Hokkaido

I've have never met so many people who virtually never use the internet. I have worked with many Japanese people who had never used an internet search site like Google before coming to work at our company. Amazing!

Probably the funniest low tech thing I've ever experienced here was when my wife and I got our Japanese drivers licences. The women at the cashiers desk added up our bill on an abacus!! Japan a high tech nation? ;)

The most frustrating thing of all has to be ATM's closing on public holidays (periods when you are mostly likely to want to get money out!). Why on earth does an ATM need a holiday?? :mtongue:

It took me one holiday to learn to plan ahead.

Surely you have lived there long enough to see where they show TV shows where people can add up figures faster using a abacus than a calculator, and tend to be more accurate.

"Low tech" does not mean worse.

The abacus has been in use for over 4000 years. If it ain't broke, why fix it? Just because it isn't used in the West doesn't mean it is bad.

Of course you have to plan ahead but isn't it a little ridiculous you should have to?? What possible rational reason is there for an electronic banking service like an ATM ever having to close? They don't get tired and need a break as far as I can tell!

I agree with what the article is saying, but they picked a couple of lame points and eleborated on some good points in misleading ways.

As far as I can tell the iphone is like a Japanese phone from 10 years ago. The touch-panel feature (at least I think that's what it has) is what's important.

With that said, the internet is accessed by most Japanese that I know with their phones. I'd say that WAY more Japanese people use the internet. Japanese text messages are based off e-mail addresses. The only thing is, it's hard to use things like wikipedia or youtube or even google as you can on a computer, so it's not the "internet" as I see it. That is where the problem is. I'm surprised at how many people over 25 don't seem to have a decent handle on computers.

On the contrary though, the Nintendo DS came out like 5 years ago and that seemed to be the precurser to the itouch, in my opinion. I think that Japan is still innovating, but like the article says some areas are slow to implement certain new technology.

Something that surprised me was learning that a lot of houses didn't have plumbing until the mid-late 80's around here! I don't know if that is all of Japan or just country-side areas... but still. People used to have to discard of their "stuff" on their own. I guess people would use it as fertilizer. Look at things now, they have some of the best toilets I've ever laid my... on ;) .

Edit: I see there were many posts made about this while I typed mine up. I like and agree with the idea that if there is no clear and immediate need for something by the people, then it probably won't be made and promoted by a Japanese company (which in a sense could be the "conservative"ness that the poster was talking about a while back.)
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Getting back on topic, I think a love hotel is in a weird way a conservative approach to that. I think so because it provides people an opportunity to do it completely anonymously. What's more, it provides a clean place with plenty of protection available. To borrow a term that I seem to hear a lot lately, I think this could be considered damage reduction. That's the way I see it anyways.

On the flip side, though... I'm surprised nobody has brought up onsens or bath houses yet. Bathing with complete strangers seems like a potential hazard to me, yet nobody seems to worry about that. If there were to be a big hike of cases in Japan I wonder what would happen to the bathing culture here.

With all things considered, I think theres a couple of reasons (which people have covered). It is an island country, so it's hard for people to sneak in and out of. More important than that is what MMM was talking about. To live here as a foreigner, you basically have to work. To work you have to get tested for many different things. There are many competant people who are willing to work here, so I think it's in Japans best interest to filter through people who have certain diseases (as cold as that may seem... that's my opinion). After all, if it affects ones ability to work, then it is a problem. With that said, the biggest worry for Japan, I'd think, would be Japanese people living abroad for periods of time. Although I'm saying that without any idea of the tests they have to go through when coming to and leaving the country.

Didn't say anything about it being bad but it does illustrate rather pointedly the tendency to hold onto low tech in this country. It does keep lots of people in jobs which certainly isn't a bad thing but does get to the heart of why many Japanese companies are terribly inefficient.

HIV can't be transmitted in a bath. Other things maybe but HIV really doesn't do well outside of the body.

I completely disagree. If an abacus is more efficient than a calculator in the hands of someone who knows how to use it, how is that inefficient?

It is anonymous in that the hotel doesn't have to know who YOU are for you to stay there. Love hotels exist because many young people live at home and have much less privacy than we are accustomed to in the West, so instead of crashing at your girlfriend's apartment (she doesn't have one) or her dorm room (boys not allowed) the love hotel industry finds its niche.

Naturally these aren't the only customers, though.

My comment was more about the low tech nature of many Japanese workplaces necessitating many more people being employed on average than what you would find in similar sized companies in the west. More people for the same amount of work is not efficient. It does keep a hell of a lot more people employed which is good for society but it doesn't make for overly efficient businesses. Maybe your few years down in Osaka gave you a different view on this but it's what I've found up this way.

If that is your point, then the abacus is a poor example of low efficiency. It is 100% green, emits not CO2, and has no effect on the environment.

Living right now in a society (in the US) where it takes three guys to watch one guy dig a hole, it is hard to say Japan is so drastically inefficient.

In my opinion, efficiency is not about what method you use or how many people do it. It's all about result divided by time (result:time). If old method give you more better result, why should we change the method anyway, and hiring more people is not quite a problem as long as the company still make profit. It also reduces the unemployment rate too!

The way I mean "cutting edge with discipline" I means that they have relatively modern society compare to the other countrys, yet they still follow traditional norms, value and culture.

But you know sometimes even when you have new tech, you may want to revert back to old method sometime if you feel comfortable with it. It's not about something nostalgic but it's about what you familiar with.

My mom she's still can't send e-mail, but you know, she still happy with her paper work and handwriting. She always say that her old working system that use paper and handwriting is better than the computer, because it's difficult for her to use it.

One more thing, "I HATE CENTRAL HEATING!". When I travel to some country I stay in some hotel that has central heating, I feel so hot, yet I still unable to turn on the A/C, I got no other choice: I just open the window and turn the room's A/C off.

Ok, I understand what you meant by cutting edge with discipline now.

and what the hell kind of central heating did not allow you to change it to a temperature that you were comfortable with? That is a type of central heating i have never experienced. I think I would just open a window too.

Not sure how my comment had anything to do with the environment. Thought we were talking about economic and workplace efficiency not environmental.