Carbamazepine (CBZ) is frequently used for treating epilepsy, but this drug 
causes cutaneous adverse drug reactions (cADRs) that may range from mild to 
severe. It is reported recently that the human leukocyte antigen HLA-B*1502 is 
associated with Stevens-Johnson syndrome (SJS) induced by CBZ in Han Chinese. We 
examined HLA class I in 15 Japanese patients who fulfilled the diagnostic 
criteria for CBZ-induced cADRs (mild in 10 and severe = SJS in 5). HLA-B*1518, 
HLA-B*5901 and HLA-C*0704 alleles showed higher relative risks (above 10.0) for 
severe cADRs. The haplotype (HLA-A*2402-B*5901-C*0102) had high relative risk 
(16.09) for severe cADRs. In patients with severe cADRs, frequencies of 
HLA-A*1101, HLA-A*3303, HLA-B*1501, HLA-B*4403, HLA-B*5101, HLA-B*5201, 
HLA-C*0702, and HLA-C*1202 alleles are relatively lower than in the Japanese 
population. These data may suggest that HLA-B*5901 is one of the candidate 
markers for CBZ-induced SJS in Japanese.