On June 29, 2006, FGFJ Diet Task Force Director Ichiro Aisawa and Hiroyuki Nagahama traveled to South Africa to visit communities ravaged by the AIDS epidemic.
The FGFJ brought together experts from around the region in a yearlong study to examine how governments, civil society, corporations, and the media are responding to the spread of HIV/AIDS.
On April 21, 2006, Bill Gates, co-chair of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, joined FGJF board members for a special briefing session on Japan’s response to the spread of the major communicable diseases.
On November 8, a coalition of Japanese nonprofits participating in the Hottokenai, Sekai no Mazushisa anti-poverty campaign announced that it will contribute $250,000 of the proceeds from the sale of white wristbands to the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria.
Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi urged greater international cooperation in battling the spread of AIDS in Asia and announced that Japan is dramatically raising its commitment to the Global Fund to US$500 million.
A number of corporations have launched innovative and effective programs to help combat these diseases, and their experiences were explored in a half-day symposium on June 28, 2005, that brought together leaders from the corporate, nonprofit, philanthropic, and governmental sectors in Japan and around the world.
