1988, World AIDS Day on Dec. 1 has been observed as a time to display compassion, hope, solidarity and understanding about the deadly disease. This year's theme is "AIDS: Men Make a Difference." More than 70 percent of HIV infections worldwide occur through sex between men and women, with a further 10 percent through sex between men. This series of articles will examine three men whose lives have been deeply touched by AIDS and HIV.

An alarming number of Japanese who have AIDS, the human immunodeficiency virus, are unaware they are infecting others through sexual activity, according to an Australian volunteer and activist here.

For more than two years, Hayden Majajas, 27, from Brisbane, has worked as a volunteer for AIDS Care Project, a volunteer organization helping people live with HIV and AIDS in Japan.

Majajas is continually amazed by people's ignorance of sexually transmitted diseases and maintains that the numbers of HIV- and AIDS-related cases is being grossly underestimated by Japanese authorities.

"I believe the figures for both HIV and AIDS are at least 10 times more than government statistics show," he said. According to the Health and Welfare Ministry, the cumulative number of AIDS cases in Japan reached 2,441 as of September.

"Part of the problem is that people are not getting tested and do not realize that they have HIV, yet meanwhile they are continuing to have sex," said Majajas, who has been invited for the second year in a row by the Tokyo Metropolitan Government to speak at a symposium for AIDS Awareness Month, which kicks off today. Majajas will be the only foreigner making a presentation at the symposium.

"I'm always amazed by the attitude of people here," he said. "I hand out pamphlets or condoms on the street and often people hand them back saying, 'I have no relationship to HIV or AIDS. I'm not gay, I'm not a hemophiliac.' "

To highlight the isolation and desperation that many people with HIV and AIDS in Japan face, Majajas cites the case of a Japanese friend who contracted HIV from her husband while living overseas. She returned to Japan about three years ago, after losing her husband and their baby twins to AIDS.

"This woman's story is the saddest and the hardest one I have ever heard, especially when it comes to living with HIV and AIDS," Majajas said.

"The problem of the woman, in her late 20s, was she didn't know where to turn. She had already had HIV for a couple of years at that time but hadn't done anything about it. She did not know if she should go to a general practitioner or a specialist. She had no idea what to do," he said, adding that she is living with full-blown AIDS.

"In the end, she came to Gratis, one of the charity disco events for HIV and AIDS that I help organize. We introduced her to a specialist, got her on medication and got some counseling for her.

"She had contracted HIV through her husband. She knew about his HIV status before marrying him but they were very much in love and when you're that much in love there comes a time when the barrier between you just disappears.

"Some people will of course say she could just have gone to a clinic, but it is much harder than many of us think. The lack of support here for people with HIV and AIDS is staggering."

Majajas, a homosexual who lives and works in the gay community here, wants to bring home a strong message this year to gay men that, while it is important to use condoms, it is also important to get tested.

"There is a worldwide trend at the moment in the gay world of men not using condoms. One reason is the improvement in HIV drugs. People think that if drugs can prolong the lives of gays this much and offer them a relatively healthy life, then the situation can only continue to improve, or that there'll be an actual cure for AIDS eventually," he said.

Majajas is also troubled by the way new AIDS information is presented, citing a recently published newsletter by the metropolitan government indicating a rise in HIV and AIDS cases among men who are over the age of 50.

According to the newsletter, between June 26 and Aug. 27 of this year, 61 new cases related to HIV or AIDS were reported among men in Tokyo. Of this figure, 17 were men over 50 and 20 were men in their 30s. The number for women during the same period was only two.

Majajas said the government fails to break down the statistics into meaningful information.

"They specify that the over-50s present an eye-opening problem, yet the report does not say who these men are. Are they gay, bisexual or heterosexual? We are aware that in Ueno, an area where many middle-aged gay and bisexual men congregate -- some of whom are married or who have girlfriends, too -- are shooting up drugs," he said.

On the other hand, the statistics may reveal something about brothels in some areas, such as Asakusa, where many sex shop operators do not allow their women to use condoms with their clients, he said.