11th APACC 2026
The Closing the Gap: Negating the Red Queen Effect 2026 will take place on 17 June 2026 as the official pre-meeting of APACC 2026 in Tokyo, Japan.
Registration is complimentary for Regular Delegates.
For more information, please visit our meeting website.
About this program
Despite decades of progress in HIV testing and treatment, a substantial number of individuals living with HIV remain undiagnosed, untreated, or disconnected from care.
These “difficult to find” populations—often marginalized by stigma, poverty, geographic isolation, criminalization, or systemic inequities—represent a critical gap in our national response to the HIV epidemic. Reaching them is not only a moral imperative but a public health necessity.
To end the HIV epidemic, we must achieve equity in care and ensure viral suppression across all communities. This requires focused, intentional strategies to identify and engage those consistently left behind.
A dedicated meeting, such as Closing the Gap, is urgently needed to convene diverse stakeholders—community leaders, researchers, public health officials, and implementers—to tackle this challenge collectively.
Through the sharing of innovative outreach strategies, identification of data and service gaps, and development of aligned policy and practice approaches, Closing the Gap fosters the human-centered, collaborative responses needed to find and support these individuals. Without this focused effort, national goals for HIV elimination will remain out of reach.
The time to act is now—closing the gap is essential to closing the epidemic.
HIV/AIDS in Asia/Pacific under the Transformation of Global Health Policy and Finance
Taking place ahead of APACC 2026, this symposium will be held at Nishi-Shinjuku, Tokyo, from 10:00 to 12:00 on 17th June 2026.
Venue: Meeting Room S201, Reference Nishi-Shinjuku Daikyo Bldg (4 minutes walk from Hilton Tokyo, the venue of APACC)
Address: 7-21-3 Nishi-Shinjuku, Shinjuku-ku, Tokyo
About this program
The year 2026 will be of critical importance for the world’s future efforts to combat AIDS. The foreign assistance from the United States, has been significantly reduced with drastic changes. The 8th replenishment of the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria has also stalled, falling 30% short of the $18 billion target. If this trend continues, the world will fail to achieve the SDG goal of “ending AIDS by 2030”.
Meanwhile, global health policy is shifting significantly toward “Universal Health Coverage” (UHC). While various efforts are being made to help countries break their aid dependency, the communities of the key populations on HIV/AIDS are often left behind. The question remains: how can we achieve “UHC that leaves no one behind,” ensuring that these communities are actively involved in the national health systems?
Amid major transformations in global health policy and funding flows, this symposium will explore how to address AIDS response and achieve UHC, with a focus on the Asia-Pacific region.
Connecting Asia-Pacific Communities and Japan: An Evening at Community Center AKTA
As APACC 2026 draws to a close, we invite participants to step out of the conference venue and into the heart of Tokyo's LGBTQ+ district. This two-hour after-event takes place at Community Center AKTA in Shinjuku Ni-chome, a community hub that has anchored HIV prevention and sexual health work in Japan for over two decades.
The event will take place at the Community Center AKTA, Shinjuku Ni-chome, Tokyo, on 20 June 2026, from 16:00 to 18:00.
Registration is complimentary for Regular Delegates.
About this program
The program opens with a plenary session featuring Dr. Chien-Ching Hung (Taiwan) on the epidemiology of and responses to Hepatitis A, mpox, and HIV in Taiwan, followed by an overview of current HIV/AIDS trends in Japan. A rapid-fire pitch session then brings voices from Korea, Mongolia, Viet Nam, and Japan, each spotlighting a pressing national challenge—from PrEP access and the sexual health of transgender people to marriage equality and barriers to early treatment for people living with HIV. The evening culminates in an open discussion on a shared question: how can the Asia-Pacific region build genuinely multilateral approaches to global health?
What makes this gathering distinctive is the room itself. Community leaders, researchers, government representatives, and industry partners share the same physical space—a working community center, not a conference hall—creating the kind of direct, informal connection that policy documents rarely capture. Real-time Japanese-English captioning ensures the conversation flows across languages.
The event is organized by two Japanese national research groups led by Dr. Junko Tanuma and Dr. Noriyo Kaneko, in cooperation with Community Center AKTA. Seating is limited to approximately 50 participants, and light refreshments will be served.
We warmly welcome APACC delegates to join us in turning regional dialogue into lasting relationships.
