When he was just 10 years old Japanese Parliament member Ryuhei Kawada had a bombshell of information dropped on him that he was probably too young to understand. It was then that his mother informed him of his HIV status, but not due to any type of perverted family matters. Ryuhei had been the victim of contaminated blood given to him at a hospital while he was undergoing treatment for hemophilia, a condition that causes someones blood to have more difficulty clotting and the usual result is a substantial increase in blood loss from normally far less serious injuries.
In 1993 Ryuhei joined a historic class action lawsuit against five pharmaceutical companies in which they were found guilty of supplying medical facilities with unsterilized blood. It was during the lawsuit that he first became famous in Japan for having the guts to out himself and become a public icon for the Tokyo HIV Litigation.
Ryuhei was elected to the House of Councilors in 2007 and was named on the list of "Young Global Leaders" by the World Economic Forum that same year. Since then he has come out against the oppressive regime in Burma and is actively trying to get the rest of Parliament to cut off aid to the government there.
This article has been updated to include a new source where Kawada says he considered suing the Japanese government for giving him HIV.