Japan Official Apologizes in AIDS Scandal

In a dramatic show of contrition from a Cabinet official, Japan’s health minister tearfully apologized Friday to AIDS sufferers for allowing contaminated blood products to be administered to the nation’s hemophiliacs.

“The Health and Welfare Ministry and the government are responsible for everything. . . . I apologize for inflicting serious damage to people who have no reason to suffer,” Health and Welfare Minister Naoto Kan said in a halting voice, choking back tears, as he addressed about 200 people infected with HIV and their relatives here.

After he spoke, uncontrollable sobs erupted from audience members--many of them plaintiffs in lawsuits filed against the Japanese government and five major pharmaceutical companies.

As Kan shook hands with people in the front rows, a crying woman stepped forward carrying a large picture of her dead son, a hemophiliac who contracted AIDS from blood products and died two weeks ago.

She yelled at the minister, demanding that he make a personal apology to her son and pray to his image.

The minister fell to his knees before the photograph and, with tears rolling down his face, did so.

Kan, a member of the New Party Harbinger that shares power in Japan’s coalition government, had demanded an investigation into the scandal after taking office in January and shocked the nation by unearthing several files that bureaucrats had claimed did not exist. The files show that officials knew about the blood dangers but ignored them.

In one of the nation’s greatest and most unnecessary tragedies in recent memory, the government allowed widespread use of untreated blood products in the mid-1980s even after warnings from the United States. The bungling caused 40% of the nation’s 5,000 hemophiliacs to be infected with HIV, the human immunodeficiency virus that causes AIDS. Today, 400 of them are dead; 401 have lawsuits pending.

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In Japan, where public displays of emotion are rare and ministry officials are often considered arrogant and distant by average citizens, Kan’s apology left millions of people shocked and moved as they watched television news reports of his actions.

His clear assumption of government responsibility was also rare. Officials here are often criticized for blurring lines of responsibility and passing the buck, such as in a current scandal involving the massive bad debt of ailing housing-loan firms.

The apology was the climax of a three-day sit-in at the Health and Welfare Ministry by thousands of protesters. Enduring bone-chilling rain, nearly two dozen victims of tainted blood products, many frail, stuck out their desperate vigil wrapped in blankets with their faces hidden to protect their identities.

In the 1980s, hospitals and pharmaceutical companies around the world began to use special equipment to sterilize blood. Despite warnings that using untreated blood was unsafe, Japan considered the newfangled equipment, and the necessary staff training, too expensive.

To cut costs for pharmaceutical companies, who enjoy a cozy relationship with the health and welfare bureaucrats, ministry officials approved the use of untreated blood. Ever since the lawsuits were first filed in 1989, officials claimed that they believed the blood was safe.

Then, earlier this week, nine files documenting the dangers were suddenly “found.” The discovery caught the media’s attention. Over the last few days, television stations have featured the tragic stories of victims willing to speak out.

Few have been willing to do so until now, because the stigma of AIDS in Japan is severe. Like many countries, Japan is rife with misinformation about AIDS.

Many Japanese perceive it as a result of promiscuity and believe that it can be spread by holding hands or kissing, said Haruhisa Terao, an actor who spent Friday outside the ministry, using his booming voice to get the attention of passers-by.

And studies show that even in Japan’s medical establishment there is strong bias against AIDS patients; some sufferers flee the country for clinics in Hawaii and California.

In addition to his apology Friday, Kan promised to institute permanent medical care and financial assistance for those infected by the contaminated blood. The pledge will aid the victims who might otherwise die while wading through Japan’s glacially slow court system, where winning government compensation can take two to three decades.

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Kan’s assumption of responsibility means that the government, pharmaceutical companies and plaintiffs will likely be able to reach out-of-court settlements by March.

“I was shocked when they found those documents three days ago,” said Hitoshi Sato, 20, who turned out to protest in the rain after seeing Ryuhei Kawada, a man his own age who was infected with the AIDS virus, speaking out about the scandal on television.

“I never knew the government did things like that. . . . They lied to us.”