Big in Japan? Not likely it is illegal.

[TheBigotBasher]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c98qdFQF7sw

Thanks to an anti-obesity law passed by the Japanese government, Japanese men and women are having to tuck their belts in or they and their employers will face consequences. The Japanese government wants to say goodbye to metabo.

Men are deemed fat if their  waist is over 33.5 inches, women are allowed an extra inch of belly. They will be deemed fat if their waist is 35.4 inches. If you have eaten too much sushi (or probably too many Western style Burgers) you will have to attend a compulsory counselling session with a physician.

For every overweight employee found by the fat busting Japanese government, employers will be hit with a belt breaking fine, so Japanese employers give their staff free membership of gyms and even pedometers to walk off all that extra fat.

The theory is that obesity is costing Western society $billions. As Western waist sizes grow Japan does not want to follow a certain well-known Country down that path.



Japan has one of the world’s lowest rates of obesity — fewer than 5 percent of Japanese adults are obese compared to 35 percent of Americans. In England 46 percent of men and 32 percent of women are overweight. An additional 17 percent of men and 21 percent of women are obese.

While obesity is low, waist sizes are increasing. Longer life spans and low birth rates are aging the Japanese population. Japan is ageing faster than any other industrialised Country. These factors combined are putting pressure on the Japanese health care system because of increases in the levels of diabetes. In 1997 6.9 million Japanese residents had diabetes in 2008 that number had increased to 8.9 million. As a result health care costs are likely to double in Japan by 2020.

Metabo is certainly controversial from a Western liberal view-point. It appears to be humiliating and far too absolute. To be fair, waist size is not the only test, the exams factor in blood pressure, cholesterol, blood sugar, weight and smoking, but like speeding laws the waist size test is an absolute. Go over you are breaking the law.

For all those crying out for "government to do something" about obesity, at its extreme this is what "doing something" means. There are less "absolute" solutions such as controls on the use of hydrogenated fats and reverting to cane sugar instead of high fructose corn syrup, but coupled with those measures surely it is easier for people worried about their weight to do something about it themselves?

[n2doc]

1. Then what will become of the Sumo?

[TheBigotBasher]

2. He looks like me.

Where did you get my picture?

As for Sumo wrestlers it will not really have any consequence on them. There is no penalty on the individual although a Doctor will discuss your health. That seems fair enough. This was introduced to offer both a carrot and stick to employers to concern themselves with the health of their employees. It is well motivated but as a fatty (who has also been a skinny) it does seem far too much of an absolute and illiberal solution.

[Codeine]

7. Funny you should mention that.

The Japanese are perturbed that the sport has become increasingly dominated by Mongolians, Americans, and Eastern Europeans.

[Bonobo]

8. Americans? nt

[Codeine]

10. Yes, Americans.

An American named Chad Rowan is the first foreign sumo wrestler to ever reach the top spot (yokozuna) in the sport. He wrestles under the name Akebono.

The next two yokozuna have been Mongolians.

[Bonobo]

11. You said increasingly....

Akebono retired a long time ago.

There are no Americans currently in the upper ranks of sumo (or even the lower juuryo division).

And you are wrong on another count.

After Akebono, the next Yokozuna was another American named "Musashimaru".

Following THAT were 2 Mongolians, one who has subsequently been forced to retire.

There are no Americans.

[Codeine]

14. There have been several high-level American sumo wrestlers in the sport's recent history

and there will be more in the future.

The "increasing" term applied to the general growth of all foreign wrestlers; Americans have been a part of that, though at the moment you are correct about their lack of high-level presence. You obviously know quite a bit more than I do about the specifics.

[Bonobo]

15. Sumo is the only sport I follow these days.

As for the issue of the dominance of Mongolians and Eastern Europoeans, yes, many Japanese feel sad that the Japanese are not dominating their own sport.

But you have to understand that Sumo is more than just a sport. It has religious and cultural ties that go deeply into the heart of what it means to be Japanese.

So to not be excelling in the sport vs. foreigners is a symptom, to many Japanese, that they have lost something vital in their national character, lost their essence in many ways.

It is not anti-foreign-ism in the way that you may think it is. Remember that they invited the foreigners in.

http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_8cqKRgfr5Mo/S7yPSTxZ3VI/AAAAAAAAAGk/ZqqzoN08yKg/s1600/sumo+antigo.jpg

[Chulanowa]

19. The Mongols are unsurprising

Anyone who can wear that getup and still look threatening...

[eridani]

16. And Polynesians

All of those groups find it far easier to gain weight than Japanese.

[customerserviceguy]

3. Japan, the very definition of a nanny state

A few of my friends have been there over the last several decades, and they universally report this.

[ProgRock8]

4. Crazy

[TonyMontana]

6. No, the UK is worse

Much, much worse.

[TheBigotBasher]

17. Like hell it is.

Explain how.

[L0oniX]

5. "obesity is costing Western society $billions" Leave my fucking Big Mac alone!

[depakid]

9. How does this square with sumo?

:shrug:

[Tutankhamun]

12. Our government is absolutely determined to avoid addressing

the real culprit behind Americans' soaring rate of obesity: poverty. If they addressed poverty as a cause of our obesity epidemic they would also have to address poverty itself. This is a scary proposition for a government intent on cultivating an increasingly impoverished lifestyle for its citizens.

Sean Hannity has begun floating the idea that the obese are spoiled and lazy rather than impoverished and overworked.

[Bonobo]

13. Headline is a lie. It is not illegal to be overweight in Japan.

Guys, you need to question the bullshit that the US media puts out there so Americans can forget about how fucked up their own country is.

It is not illegal to be overweight in Japan.

[Mimosa]

18. People ought to check the facts before posting a topic. n/t

[TheBigotBasher]

21. I did fact check

it is employers who face financial penalties and not individuals. Unlike how this was reported by Current and other US sources I also pointed out that the health checks are not restricted to waist size. The waist size does however remain an absolute test. Go over and you are go to the gym and counselling.

[Hannah Bell]

20. +100

[WinkyDink]

22. "....smoking rates, which remain among the highest among advanced nations,...":

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/06/13/world/asia/13fat.html

[TheBigotBasher]

23. Indeed

" in large part because of Japan’s powerful tobacco lobby."

Says it all really.

[xchrom]

24. omg! alphaville! nt

[Nikia]

25. Does this mean obese Japanese will have employment problems?

If there are penalties for companies that employ them, the companies might be more likely to fire heavy employees and are certainly more likely to hire thin employees.