Thanks for the article.
Unfortunately, it appears to be vaguely worded. Do we know if it means, "the first human-to-human transmission ever recorded and it just so happens to have occurred in Japan" or "the first human-to-human transmission of tick-bourne disease to have happened in Japan"? Given that this doesn't seem to have much press, I'd say human-to-human has happened before but just not in Japan. However, given the wording of the article, it just isn't clear which one.
