Japan Enforces Legal Limit On Waistlines

New York Times:

Japan, a country not known for its overweight people, has undertaken one of the most ambitious campaigns ever by a nation to slim down its citizenry.

Summoned by the city of Amagasaki one recent morning, Minoru Nogiri, 45, a flower shop owner, found himself lining up to have his waistline measured. With no visible paunch, he seemed to run little risk of being classified as overweight, or metabo, the preferred word in Japan these days.

But because the new state-prescribed limit for male waistlines is a strict 33.5 inches, he had anxiously measured himself at home a couple of days earlier. "I'm on the border," he said.

Under a national law that came into effect two months ago, companies and local governments must now measure the waistlines of Japanese people between the ages of 40 and 74 as part of their annual checkups. That represents more than 56 million waistlines, or about 44 percent of the entire population.

Those exceeding government limits -- 33.5 inches for men and 35.4 inches for women, which are identical to thresholds established in 2005 for Japan by the International Diabetes Federation as an easy guideline for identifying health risks -- and having a weight-related ailment will be given dieting guidance if after three months they do not lose weight. If necessary, those people will be steered toward further re-education after six more months.

Read the whole story: New York Times

Comments

[1099]

Are you kidding about Constitutional rights? The government should stay the hell out of everyone's business. If I want to smoke let me smoke. If I want to drink let me drink. If I want to be obese and drag my fat ass around the streets that's my business.

The reason people in this country are getting heavier is because most the jobs they have require them to sit on their asses in front of computers all day and eat cheap fast food when it's feeding time.

If the government is so concerned with phasing out vices like smoking in order to make the country more healthy they should start with shutting down McDonald's, Taco Bell, etc. The crap that people get from those places causes way more health problems for the populus than smoking and the cost of caring for the negative health effects caused by this "food" far trumps that of smoking related health issues.

By the way smoking, is an appetite suppressant so maybe these overweight people should put down the burgers and pick up a pack of Marlboros.

[emerywood]

A more effective way would be for the airlines to charge twice as much for waist line over the limit.
Strangely enough, Canada just passed a law that allows overweight passengers to occupy two seats with the price of a single ticket !

[Cowtippin]

Americans should be charged by what they weigh. If you weigh 400 pounds then you pay 400.00 per month. The less you weigh...the less you pay. Sounds good to me. This should get all the tubby folks to drop some lard. If you loss weight you will live longer and pay less.

[allwrite]

What will they do with the Sumo wrestlers?

But seriously, I do long for the day when the words 'fat' and 'American' are not so often found in proximity. Just think of all the imported oil to be saved if our passenger tonnage could be reduced. We could go back up to 2 suitcase limits on the airlines.

[TheBlackCat]

That's an excellent question. I can only guess that Sumo wrestlers would be exempt.


I know what you mean, it's embarassing that Americans are known as the stupidest and laziest country in the Western world. I live abroad part of the year and I am CONSTANTLY getting the comment, "My, you're so thin for an American!" Anybody been to Texas lately? It is out of CONTROL there. I swear nearly every person is morbidly obese.

Which isn't to say I agree with legislating waist sizes! Surely there's a better way!

[aristippe]

So you folks still support universal healthcare

[research]

Here in the USA, Private insurance can be more expensive or impossible to get for obese people:

health insurance higher for obese

[aristippe]

I'm not sure what your point is. You want to tax obese folks for more money when they participate in universal care? 60% of Americans are considered obese. Maybe you expect others to pick up the additional cost because people don't take care of themselves? What about smokers, meat eaters, stress , drinkers, occupational hazards, GENETICS?

[research]

http://www.google.com/search?q=health+insurance+higher+for+obese&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&aq=t&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&client=firefox-a

[thereshope]

I don't think it's about money. It's more about control and puritanical hatred (see Mencken's definition of a puritan).
Robert Samuelson made a good point about the zealots who want to use the government to help curb smoking. They always bring up the billions it's costing all of us with work loss and health care costs. But everybody eventually gets sick and dies, and the cost of dying will be high regardless of your ailment. If you're a regular smoker, you're going to die 5 to 10 years earlier than the average, which is at least 5 to 10 years into your non-productive retirement years anyway.
Japan is a healthy country where the hospitals and community clinics are seriously overburdened by legions of trim, fish and seaweed eating 80 to 100 year olds. I say if Mr. Tanaka wants to enjoy a smoke, a whiskey, and a big fat burger, let him. He's not going to bankrupt everybody if he dies at 78 instead of 93.

[Ping]

From The Atlanta Constitution Journal

The New York Times reports that in Japan, “under a national law that came into effect two months ago, companies and local governments must now measure the waistlines of Japanese people between the ages of 40 and 74 as part of their annual checkups.

“Those exceeding government limits - 33.5 inches for men and 35.4 inches for women, and having a weight related ailment will be given dieting guidance if after three months they do not lose weight. If necessary, they will be steered toward further re-education after six more months.”

The government will impose financial penalties on companies and local governments that fail to achieve targets for reducing the overweight population.

----------------------------------------------------------------------
Notice the last paragraph. It's all about money. There is no mention of drugs. Lose weight or be reeducated.

[Ping]

This comment is pending approval and won't be displayed until it is approved.

It's about money, and it's about a social conciseness that exists in Japan that apparently does not exist in the US. The Japanese people understand, somewhat zealously, that anytime a fat slob develops diabetes it raises everyone's health care premium.

HUFFPO censorship sucks

[TheBlackCat]

Ping, I agree. HuffPo censorship has gotten out of control! I enjoy this page much less than i used to. yes it has been effective in getting rid of a lot of the trolling 13 year old olds, but it has gone WAY overboard. It has made this board FAR less enjoyable, and more and more comments are filled with people wonering why their non offensive comments are being culled.

HuffPo censors, take note- it's becoming 1984 around here!!

[youknowwhat]

Actually nobody should have to tell you you need to be healthy. Can you imagine all of the money the fast food and pharmaceutal industries would lose if Americans decided to get healthy?

[jneems]

How is this going to "embarrass" middle America? Do they think other people can't already see that their waists are too big? The waist test is done in private, during the person's annual checkup. And why wouldn't Americans tolerate this? They tolerate scanning machines at airports that are a far greater invasion of privacy. Talk about embarrassment.

I don't like this Japanese ruling simply because it puts more power into the hands of the medical/pharmaceutical industry. Wanna bet that if you don't bring your waist size down by six months, they put you on drugs to help?

As one critic in the article stated:

"The effect, they say, will be to encourage over-medication"

[protagonia]

America's newest caucus:

THE FLABERTARIAN PARTY.

For disillusioned former Republicans who like to pack on the snacks.

[BlackbirdHighway]

That's gotta be hard on those Sumo wrestlers!

[MTGradwell]

Yes. That first sentence is pretty strange: "Japan, a country not known for its overweight people..."??

[brooklyncitizen]

We should be so lucky.

[queotic]

"If necessary, those people will be steered toward further re-education after six more months."

Wow, that doesn't sound ominous.

[sandiegoconservative]

Big brother will tell you what to do.

I'm shocked more libs are not thrilled by this.

[TheBlackCat]

San Diego,
So not ever EVER EVER buy into the idea that one party is the protector of your freedoms and the other is the party of supression. Liberal Europe keeps video cameras EVERYWHERE, watching everything you do when you leave your home. They also have MUCH more access to your financial and travel records. Here in America, the Republicans passed the Patriot act. Now they get to wiretap your phone and find out what library books you check out. They say that this is only used for terrorism suspects, but famously the reason Eliot Spitzers' illegal ladies were discovered when officials used the Patriot Act to get his financial records. Did they really think Eliot Spitzer, the governor of NY, was a terrorist?
Republicans want to control your bedroom, Democrats want to control your wallet.
Big Brother can emerge from the right OR the left. Neither is the party/side of freedom. Each side has an agenda of certain activities they want to monitor or control. As techonology increases, this will get ever worse. As long as there is a government, there will be those within it who will want to control you. Never forget that! Neither Republicans NOR Democrats are the "pro freedom" party.

[Orlando]

First we would need a public health care system.
I'd gladly get measured if it meant that my parents and family could have health care.
Why don't we care for members of our society?
How can we not see that a healthy society is to the benefit of all?

We are the only industrialized nation that does not have socialized health care for its workers.

Why do we accept so little and suffer so much?

[1099]

The government has no right to tell people how and what to eat. If someone's pursuit of happinness is to stuff their face then more power to 'em. Same thing with smoking.

The quality of care available would drop with socialized medecine albeit many more people would be covered.

If our health care is so bad why do so many people come to this country when they need serious medical procedures? Why not go to Cuba or Canada?

[TheBlackCat]

I work at the Dana Farber Cancer Institute, and we also send out patients to different countries if they can afford it for certain procedures, if better specialists or technologies, or shorter waiting periods for treatment, are available there. We send people to Germany, France, India and South Korea for treatment more often than you'd think! Also, when people from other countries DO come to America for treatmment, it is THEIR GOVERNMENT who pays for them.
I agree that we should not all have to go on one standard government health insurance. We should be able to keep our private health insurance that we buy or get through our employers. I would never argue we should ALL have to go on the same universal plan. If you are able to pay for great health insurance you should be able to. But those who cannot afford health insurance, ESPECIALLY children, should have access to government sponsored insurance. The American Medical Association, the American Cancer Association, and actually EVERY major body of health care professionals in America endorses universal healthcare for those who can't afford it. 3/4 of Americans said they would be willing to pay 1% extra in federal taxes if that 1% were strictly delegated to a health insurance program for the working poor and their families.

[Jasel]

Man they should do something similar here lol j/k. That's waayy to extreme. It is pretty interesting seeing people around the world and then walking around a Walmart here. There are a lot of Americans who need to take care of their weight/bodies.