bunsen burner said:
The chances are that AIDS won't ravage a 1st world country like it has to the other countries mentioned. As soon as the numbers go up, the educational advertising campaigns will come out.
There is a real risk that there could be an AIDS epidemic in East Asia within the next 5 -10 years. China already has over a million HIV sufferers though Taiwan, South Korea and Japan are also at risk largely due to ignorance and high risk behaviours.
I can't speak for Taiwan and Japan, though have heard the situation is similar to that of South Korea. The vast majority of Koreans believe that AIDS is a foreigners disease and that they're somehow immune from it, and sex education in this country seems not very thorough. Korea luckily continues to have a very low rate of infection, however the last couple of years have seen increases.
Korea's still a very patriarchal society and many Korean men are promiscous (sp?), going out drinking and whoring with fellow company workers after work is culturally acceptable and widespread. Studies have shown that Korean men rarely use condoms and prostitutes serving them rarely insist. The dangers of this may not be so high in Korea due to the low rate of HIV infection. However, Korean businessman take this high-risk behaviour with them to neighbouring countries on business trips where they're renowned for insisting that the prostitute serving them does not wear a condom.
A big component of these business trips (apart from their actual business dealings) it seems is drinking and whoring, and the most popular destinations are Japan (not so bad); China, Vietnam, Thailand and the Philippines (all of which have a serious HIV problem).
The sad thing is that the men that bring stds home after their trip overseas may spread it to their wives, girlfriends or other women.