The only time I have seen the topic come up in modern Japanese media has been in reference to female sex workers (ie 風俗)
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Of course there is no direct connection between HIV and sexual orientation, but there is a connection to a certain sexual behavior, namely promiscuous unprotected sex, which is of course not unique to homosexual men, but was popular in certain parts of the community when HIV started to spread. And that’s where this belief comes from. I found the Timeline of HIV/AIDS - Wikipedia to be quite interesting in that respect. Now pair that with all sorts of discriminating mindsets / superstitions / bad information and education politics, and you’re there.
For comparison, in Germany it is illegal (right now!) for homosexual men to donate blood. There are some efforts to ditch this restriction as it is highly discriminating and slightly beside the point; I think they are currently working on this. what is the year again? 
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In France that used to be the case if you had homosexual intercourses, regardless of gender.
They progressively made the rules less discriminatory (and more logical) in the past decade, though.
Now, you are only barred from giving blood if you had unprotected sex with a new partner in the past six months (regardless of the gender of anyone involved, so straight people are also affected).
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This sounds like a perfectly reasonable rule and should catch most cases (transitive cases will still slip through though but it’s the best one can do, I guess). Welp, once again it feels like Germany is a bit slow on the uptake… 
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As 七回死んだ男 is wrapping up in two weeks I thought I’d announce that voting will begin a two weeks after that (3rd of April) and run for 1 week. There will be a 2 week break after the poll closes to allow people who prefer physical copies to order the book. Thus, the first week of the new pick will be the 24th of April.
Current nominations are here. Nominations will stop being accepted at 20.
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I found a few new books I thought would be neat, but I’ll limit myself to one.
Book: 『クロック城』殺人事件 | L30??
Is there an ebook available?: yes
Summary - Japanese
終焉をむかえつつある人類の世界。探偵・南深騎（みき）と菜美の下に、黒鴣瑠華（くろうるか）と名乗る美少女が現れた。眠り続ける美女。蠢く人面蒼。３つの時を刻む巨大な時計。謎が漂うクロック城に２人を誘う瑠華。そこに大きな鐘が鳴り響いたとき、首なし遺体が次々と現れた。驚愕のトリックが待つ、本格ミステリ。
Summary - English
A world where humanity is facing the end. A beautiful young girl named Kurou Ruka appears before detective Minami Miki and Nami. A sleeping maiden. Writing blue faces. Three large clocks ticking away time. Ruka invites the pair to the mysterious Clock Castle. Whenever the large bell rings, a headless corpse appears. An orthodox mystery with an unbelievable trick.
Content warnings if known
None that I know of.
Why are you nominating this book: This is a Mephisto prize winner, so that’s always a plus. This is the debut work of Kitayama Takekuni, who’s famous for intricate physical tricks, so I’m interested in reading something by him. His biggest claim to fame is probably his involvement in the Danganronpa series, where he provided the mystery outlines for New Danganronpa v3 and is writing the Kirigiri spin-off novels.
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What would be considered a “physical trick”?
Basically taking advantage of weird architecture/physical characteristics to pull off seemingly impossible crimes. Shimada’s 斜め屋敷の犯罪 is the first that comes to mind for me. For something actually by Kitayama, pretty much every case in Danganronpa v3 is like this, although I suppose the second case might feel the most quintessentially like a ‘physical trick’…?
Of the book club books 体育館の殺人 probably feels closest, but even then (compared to Danganronpa v3) it still feels fairly different, since 体育館 had a psychological component and wasn’t premeditated, and had a big emphasis on the Queensian deduction chain.
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Natively link is up if you want to update your post and if @cat wants to update the nomination list. 『クロック城』殺人事件 | L30??
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I added it so I know, just haven’t had time. It’s a pain to modify giant posts like that on mobile
edit: nomination post has been updated
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This one’s pretty high-level, which I’m a bit concerned about since the higher the level the fewer people who can participate, but it looks interesting so I’ll toss it into the ring:
Book: 黒牢城 | L43
Is there an ebook available?: yes
Summary - Japanese
本能寺の変より四年前、天正六年の冬。織田信長に叛旗を翻して有岡城に立て籠った荒木村重は、城内で起きる難事件に翻弄される。動揺する人心を落ち着かせるため、村重は、土牢の囚人にして織田方の軍師・黒田官兵衛に謎を解くよう求めた。事件の裏には何が潜むのか。戦と推理の果てに村重は、官兵衛は何を企む。デビュー20周年の到達点。『満願』『王とサーカス』の著者が挑む戦国×ミステリの新王道。
Summary - English
Four years before the Honnoji Incident, in the winter of Tensho 6. Araki Murashige, who had rebelled against Oda Nobunaga and holed up in Arioka Castle, was at the mercy of the difficult incidents that occurred in the castle. In order to calm the unrest, Murashige asks Kanpei Kuroda, a prisoner in the dungeon and a military strategist on the Oda side, to solve the mystery. What lurks behind the incident? What does Murashige and Kanbei plan to do after all the battles and deductions? This is the culmination of the 20th anniversary of his debut. The author of “Mangan” and “The King and the Circus” takes on the challenge of creating a new classic of Sengoku x Mystery.
Content warnings if known
None known.
Why are you nominating this book: It’s won multiple awards, and I don’t think we’ve had a historical mystery nominated yet, right? I’d love to see if the author can pull off anything cool with the setting.
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The audiobook for 告白 came out this month. 
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I’ve heard this is good! But I also feel like everything that takes place in the Sengoku period assumes a lot of background cultural info that I definitely do not have 
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Could lead to some real in-depth discussion threads on our part? 
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Nomination added. Only one spot left before nominations are full. I remember this one being praised by a lot of book tubers end of last year I think?
@pm215 I can’t guarantee it will win, but voting starts April 3 and I know you love historical books
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If there’s still an open slot before nominations close I have another one in mind, but it’s another higher-level book, so I’d rather give the chance to something lower-leveled.
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Thanks for the heads-up. (I note it’s not out in 文庫本 yet, though, so it’s still fairly expensive.)
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It’s time to vote!
As a reminder, 
NOMINATIONS ARE HERE 
ebooks typically have previews (立ち読み) so if the book is unrated and you’re unsure, or you just want to scope out the writing style, please make use of it! Keep in mind that a good deal of books are entered at 30 by default and some of the books with only one or two ratings can have pretty unstable ratings.
As with last time, you will have 5 votes in this poll, and any books to receive no votes will go in the Nomination Graveyard 
They can be renominated, but please wait at least two voting cycles before reintroducing them.
As a quick reminder, the schedule is as follows:
- April 3rd - voting opens (technically April 2nd in America but most of the voters are ahead of me in timezones)
- April 10th - voting closes and winner announced (I’ve set the poll to auto close on the 10th, 0:00 UTC)
- April 24th - first weekly thread for the chosen book is opened!
Without further ado - the vote!
- 黒い森の記憶 | L30??
- グラスホッパー | L35
- 柔らかな頬 上 | L30??
- 赤ずきん、旅の途中で死体と出会う。 | L30??
- アンデッドガール・マーダーファルス 1 | L30??
- ノッキンオン・ロックドドア | L28??
- 砂の家 | L30??
- 変な家 | L27
- 木洩れ日に泳ぐ魚 | L33??
- 白光 | L30??
- 名探偵は嘘をつかない | L38
- 透明人間は密室に潜む | L30??
- 私が大好きな小説家を殺すまで | L25??
- 時空旅行者の砂時計 | 30??
- そして五人がいなくなる | L25
- 眼球堂の殺人 ~The Book~ | L30??
- 告白 | L30??
- 『クロック城』殺人事件 | L30??
- 黒牢城 | L43
0 voters
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I’m always going to vote for any book about books or reading, so 私が大好きな小説家を殺すまで it is! 
Tbh if it doesn’t win I may just buy it anyway…
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You might enjoy この本を盗む者は | L36 or 本を守ろうとする猫の話 | L31 - I thought both were a lot of fun and are books about books 
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