To the best of our knowledge, this is the first report of a negative association of the HLA-DR6 alleles DRB1*13:02 and *14:03 with Japanese SLE, although a lower frequency of DR5 [21] or DR6 [22] alleles in Asian patients with SLE has been reported before. This evidence concerns the gene TNFRSF21 and systemic lupus erythematosus.