The health ministry said Wednesday that a man in his 30s who was living in Saitama Prefecture had died of mpox, the first such death in the country.
The man was immunocompromised due to being infected with the human immunodeficiency virus, or HIV, the ministry said, with his death coming months after the World Health Organization declared in May that mpox is no longer a public health emergency of international concern due to a decline in new infection cases.
The man was diagnosed with mpox at a local hospital in September and died two months later, according to the ministry and the Saitama Prefectural Government. He had no history of overseas travel.
Japan's first case of mpox, formerly known as monkeypox, was confirmed in July last year, and there have been 227 confirmed cases in the country as of Dec. 3, according to the ministry.
The disease causes high fever, headache and swollen lymph nodes, followed by rashes that can look like blisters on the face and other parts of the body.
While most individuals recover on their own in two to four weeks, children, pregnant women and those who are immunocompromised are especially at risk of symptoms becoming severe.
According to the National Institute of Infectious Diseases, over 90,000 cases and 157 deaths were reported worldwide from January 2022 to September this year, with Asia seeing an increase in known infections since last March.