There have been many studies investigating the association between gene polymorphisms and coronary artery disease (CAD) including myocardial infarction (MI), and some studies have shown that certain gene polymorphisms are associated with CAD/MI. However, the results of the association have sometimes been controversial. The reason may be that the contribution of genetic risk factors to CAD/MI varies depending on the ethnic, environmental, and habitual backgrounds, and differs between males and females. In this study, we analyzed 17 polymorphisms in 12 candidate genes for MI in 136 patients and 200 to 235 controls, and found that there is a significant association of MI with the polymorphisms in the genes for E-selectin and CD14 receptor. To further explore the association, we investigated the C-260 T polymorphism in the promoter region of the CD14 gene in 502 MI patients and 527 control subjects. The genotype distributions of the CD14 polymorphism were as follows: patients; T/T 32.5%, C/T 48.2%, C/C 19.3%, and controls; T/T 25.4%, C/T 52.8%, C/C 21.8%. The frequencies of the T/T homozygotes were significantly higher in the patients (OR = 1.41, P = 0.013) than in the control group, confirming the association of CD14 polymorphism with MI in Japanese. Stratification analyses further demonstrated that the association was more prominent in females and in patients with a relatively low body mass index, suggesting that the contribution of the CD14-linked genetic risk to MI differs with respect to gender and habitual background.