mailtest

Free and anonymous mail-in HIV testing for international migrants

Free and
anonymous
mail-in HIV testing
for international
migrants

Select your language

Examination of the Feasibility of Social Implementation of Multilingual Mail-In HIV Testing

This study aims to develop a multilingual mail-in HIV test currently available in Japan and conduct a pilot trial with foreign residents living in the country. It seeks to understand the characteristics and satisfaction of users, examine support systems for test-takers, and ultimately contribute to the development of a service model for the social implementation of multilingual mail-in HIV testing in the future.
The participants of this study are foreign residents in Japan who are 18 years of age or older. The tests conducted in this study are for HIV and syphilis. It is not possible to take only one of the two tests.

Before proceeding, we would like to confirm your willingness to participate in this study. Kindly respond to the following questions.

Do you currently have a Japanese passport?

Are you currently residing in Japan?

Are you 18 years old or older?

Research Method

This study will be conducted according to the following procedures:

  1. Participants will apply for the postal testing through the designated website. At that time, you will be asked to answer a questionnaire in order to understand the applicant's characteristics.
  2. Information about consultation services for any questions or concerns related to the tests will be provided on both the test kit application form and the test result notification page. If you have any questions or concerns, please contact these services. Please note the following points:
    1. The available hours for consultation may vary depending on the contact point.
    2. Even during available hours, an immediate response may not always be possible.
    3. Inquiries made outside the available hours will be responded only during the next available consultation period.
    4. Depending on the language, responses may be provided using machine translation.
  3. The test kits will be sent to applicants by mail or distributed at designated locations. Those who wish to receive the test kit by mail will be asked to provide their name and address.
  4. Referring to the instructions included in the test kit, you (the applicant) will need to register your test request, email address, and password on the test registration website.
  5. Following the instructions in the test kit, you (the applicant) will collect your own specimen and return it back to the laboratory. If 10 days have passed after the test kit was mailed or distributed and you have not registered the test or returned the specimen, a reminder email will be sent to your registered email address.
  6. About one week after sending your specimen back to the laboratory, you will receive an email at your registered email address containing a URL where you can view your test results. Please check your results through that link.
  7. Please note that the principal investigator will be able to review the test results in a way that does not identify individual participants, for the purpose of monitoring the progress of the study.
  8. If your test result indicates “blood test required,” it is important to undergo a blood test at a public health center or medical institution to confirm whether you are infected or not. For participants with this test result indicates, a physician (a co-investigator of this study) will contact you via your registered email to provide support for the blood test. Therefore, please note that the principal investigator will share the email address and the language used at the time of application with the physician, only for those whose test result indicates “blood test required.”
  9. There may be a delay between when the participant see that their test result indicates “blood test required” and when the physician contacts the participant. If you wish to consult soon, please contact the consultation service regarding the test or test results. Their information is provided when you apply for the test kit and when you check your test results. Please note that the available consultation hours may vary depending on the service. So please check the available consultation hours before viewing your results if you think you may want to consult.
  10. After checking your test results, you will be asked to complete a questionnaire regarding the multilingual mail-in HIV testing.
  11. After the testing period has ended, the test results will be compiled and analyzed.

The mail-in testing kit used in this study is the blood collection kit for mail-in testing manufactured by H.U. POCKeT Co., Ltd., and approved by the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare (Certification No. 304AFBZX00028000).
This study is conducted as part of the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare’s Health and Labour Sciences Research Grant for AIDS Policy Research, under the project “Research to Develop a System for Providing HIV Testing and Medical Services for Foreign Residents” (Principal Investigator: Tsutomu Kitajima).

Planned Study Period

This study is scheduled to be conducted till August 31, 2026.

Planned Number of Participants

A total of 200 participants are expected to take part in this study.

Your participation in this study is completely voluntary.

You may decide whether or not to participate in this study based on your own free will. Since the questionnaire will be conducted anonymously, once you give your consent, it cannot be withdrawn. If you choose not to participate, you will not be treated unfavorably in any way.

Protection of Personal Information

If you wish to receive the mail-in testing kit by mail, you need to provide your name and address. Once the receipt of the postal testing kit has been confirmed, the personal information mentioned above will be completely discarded. The registered email addresses will be deleted at the end of this study (August 31, 2026).

Publication of Study Results

The results obtained from this study will be published through presentations at academic conferences and in scholarly journals. The data collected in this study will not be used for any purposes other than this research. Your identity will not be disclosed in any publications or presentations.

If you have any questions or concerns about this study, please feel free to contact the following at any time.

Principal Investigator：Tsutomu Kitajima
Faculty of Social Sciences, Kyorin University
e-mail：hivtestingapp@gmail.com
Tel: 0422-47-8000 (Extension Number: 4526)
Fax: 0422-47-8077（Main Number）

Download and review the information in PDF format.

Having understood the above information, do you agree to participate in the study titled “Exploring the Feasibility of Implementing Multilingual Mail-In HIV Testing”?

The important facts about HIV

Before explaining about the mail-in HIV testing, we would like to share some important information about HIV:

  1. HIV stands for “Human Immunodeficiency Virus.” Once infected, it weakens the immune system, making the body more susceptible to various infections. However, if HIV is detected early and treatment begins promptly, it is possible to stay healthy and live a long life. With effective and continuous treatment, the risk of transmitting HIV to others becomes extremely low.
  2. Foreign residents in Japan will not lose their visa status because of being infected with HIV.
  3. No one can be expelled from school or dismissed from employment for being infected with HIV.

In addition, this mail-in HIV testing kit also includes syphilis test. Syphilis is a sexually transmitted infection caused by bacteria. Several weeks to months after infection, painless sores or rashes may appear, however, these symptoms often disappear on their own, making the infection easy to overlook. If left untreated, serious complications involving the heart or nervous system may occur years later. Since syphilis can be cured with medication, early detection and treatment are very important.

About mail-in HIV test

Mail-in HIV testing allows you to take the test without visiting a medical institution or testing facility. You need to collect a small amount of blood from your fingertip at any location of your choice and send it to the testing laboratory by post. About one week later, you can check the test results for both HIV and syphilis online. It is not possible to take only one of the two tests.

The procedure for this mail-in HIV testing is as follows:

  • Apply online to take the test.
  • Receive HIV test kits at specific locations.
  • Follow the instructions included in the test kit, draw blood from your fingertips yourself, and mail the collected blood to the designated laboratory.
  • About a week later, the test results are confirmed on a secure web site.

The result of this HIV test will be one of the following: “Negative,” “Inconclusive,” or “Blood test required.”

Negative
No HIV antigen or antibody was detected. However, it is possible that the infection is still in its early stage and could not be detected yet. If you had a potential exposure to HIV, please take another test at least three months after the time of that exposure.
unmeasurable
The test could not be conducted due to reasons such as an insufficient amount of blood collected.
Blood test required
There is a possibility of HIV infection. However, this test may sometimes react with antibodies or other substances unrelated to HIV. Therefore, it is essential to undergo a confirmatory blood test.

Similarly, the result of the syphilis test will be one of the following: “Negative,” “Inconclusive,” or “Blood test required.” Since this syphilis test detects TP antibodies, a result of “Blood test required” may indicate a past syphilis infection. To accurately determine your current infection status, it is essential to undergo a blood test at a medical institution.

How to receive the HIV test kit

  1. Come to the a specific distribution site to pick it up.
  2. Pick up at a post office
  3. Mail to your home

For option ❶, the date, time, and location for picking up the kit will be provided at the time of application. This mail-in HIV testing can be taken anonymously; however, if you choose option ❷ or ❸, you need to provide your name and mailing address. Once the receipt of the test kit has been confirmed, your name and address will be deleted. When mailing the kit, the package will be sent in a way that does not reveal its contents.
If you receive a test kit but do not take the test, we will contact you again with instructions on how to complete the test.
Once you have received the mail-in HIV test kit, please collect a specimen and send it to the testing organization within one week.

After receiving the mail-in HIV testing kit, please collect your specimen and send it to the testing laboratory within one week. If your test result indicates “Blood test required,” a physician will contact you by email to provide support for undergoing the blood test. Please note that, for this purpose, the principal investigator will share your email address and the language you used with the physician. While the physician will try to contact you as soon as possible after you check your results, in some cases, there may be delay for few days to contact the participant.
Contact information for consultation regarding the test will be provided on both the test kit application page and the test result confirmation site. If you have any questions or concerns, please reach out to the consultation service.

Please note that registration is limited to one per person, as there is a limited number of mail-in test kits that can be distributed free of charge. Also, please be aware that registration will close once the limit is reached.

Application for Mail-In HIV Testing

  1. Please fill out the pre-survey on the mail-in HIV test
  2. Please select your preferred method for receiving the test kit.
  3. Your registration number will be sent to you by email.

Pre-survey on mail-in HIV test

The purpose of this survey is to understand the characteristics of those who wish to take a mail-in HIV test, so that we can use this information in the planning and management of future mail-in HIV tests. We appreciate your cooperation.

Responses to this survey will be processed statistically and individuals will not be identified from the survey data. You are free to cooperate with the survey and do not have to answer questions you do not want to answer.

In order to provide better mail-in test for internatinal migrants, we ask for your cooperation.

1. Sex

2. age

3. Your residential prefecture

4. Nationality

5. Status of residence

6. Length of your stay in Japan

7. How did you know about this mail-in HIV testing event? （check all that apply）

8. Have you taken an HIV test in Japan?

9. Have you ever used a mail-in HIV test?

10. What made you take the HIV test this time? （check all that apply）

11. Which of the following applies to you?

12. Have you had sex in the past 6 months?

13. Have you had sex with more than one person (3 or more) at the same time in the past 6 months?

14. In the past 6 months, have you paid a partner for sex?

15. In the past 6 months, have you had sex that was paid for by your partner?

16. When you had sex in the past 6 months, how often did you or your partner use a condom?

17. Do you know about pre-sex medication to prevent HIV infection (PrEP)?

18. Would you like to take PrEP?

19. In the past 6 months, did you take PrEP?

19-1. How did you use PrEP?

19-2. Where did you get PrEP? (You can choose more than one)

19-3. Did you visit a medical clinic when using PrEP?

19-4. How much did PrEP medicine and tests cost per month (on average)?

20. Do you know about DOXY-PEP (taking antibiotics after sex to prevent sexually transmitted infections)?

20-1. Which of the following STIs do you think DOXY-PEP is effective in preventing? (check all that apply)

20-2. If it is available, do you want to take DOXY-PEP to reduce the risk of STIs?

20-3. Have you ever taken DOXY-PEP?

21. For a multilingual mail-in HIV and syphilis test like the one described in this study, what is the highest price you would be willing to pay?

Thank you for your cooperation
Clicking the survey submission button will redirect you to the test kit application site.
To request a test kit, enter your email address on the application site.

Once you have received the mail-in HIV test kit, please collect a specimen and send it to the testing organization within one week.

Please note that registration is limited to one per person, as there is a limited number of mail-in test kits that can be distributed free of charge. Also, please be aware that registration will close once the limit is reached.

Would you like to take a mail-in HIV test?