Zika virus (ZIKV) infection has been documented within Central and South America, Asia, and Africa. Here we report the isolation of virus from a patient infected with ZIKV returning to Japan from the Dominican Republic. The ZIKV strain was imaged by electron microscopy and its complete genome sequence was analyzed. Phylogenetic analysis and molecular characterization revealed that the strain was of Asian lineage, and carried 2 unique mutations in its NS5 region. These mutations are characteristic of strains that originated in the Dominican Republic and the USA in 2016.
Keywords: Japan; Zika virus; complete genome sequence; electron microscopy.