Japan's Waistsize Law

GlobalPost:

TOKYO, Japan -- In Japan, being thin isn't just the price you pay for fashion or social acceptance. It's the law.

Read the whole story: GlobalPost

Comments

[Peter Noble 2]

02:48 PM on 11/11/2009

I think putting the penalty on the company that employs and administers the health care is the best idea. However in America it would mean that fat people would be fired from their jobs.

As for the medical profession: they really do not know what they are doing. The waist measurement makes a mockery of the BMI. So which is right? You can be 30 pounds overweight using the BMI but be well within the waistline limit.

Good health has to do with more than BMI or waistlines but if that is going to be used there should be a full physical that assesses, using calipers the ratio of dense muscle to that of fat. You can be thin, with a prefect BMI but be really flabby and unhealthy.

Young doctors in NYC can hardly bring themselves to touch a patient let alone check a near naked one. They are body shy and this means everything from skin cancers to telling the difference between muscle weight or plain fat is often missed.

Still I think the waistline test is a better rough indicator of health than the BMI.

[RobinSeattle]

02:18 PM on 11/11/2009

Please read the comments following the original article. This is much ado about nothing. In essence, Nakamura, who, iirc, used to, and may still for all I know, work for the Washington Post (and we know how far down the credibility rabbit hole they've fallen in recent years), has pulled the equivalent of the old death panels nonsense on this Japanese law that seeks to limit obesity in a country with socialized healthcare (and which, by the way, works extremely well) through COUNSELING.

The 33.5 inches for an adult Japanese male (and they are quickly gaining on Americans in average height) is only an inch more than what I wore when I was in high school when I was 5'11" and 150 pounds. So to think that they would pose it as some kind of ironclad limit is patently ridiculous. Japanese women are also chronically underweight and fat people in Japan are hardly a conspicuous problem. This is just the U.S. media twisting a story in order to draw more eyeballs on a public policy matter. They should be ashamed, but we all know they lack the shame gene.

[beedleklaw]

06:47 PM on 11/10/2009

Raises an interesting question.... Is there a fundamental right to be as obese as you want to be?
(Not included in this discussion are people with legitimate health issues that prevent them from maintaining a healthy weight.....)

I would like to see a study that what effect, if any, the obesity problem in the United States has on our economy .... short term and long term. If there is a large, measurable overall negative effect, I think I would be for some sort of regulations, especially for children.

Of course, with exceptions and rules/laws which prevent discrimination and unfair prejudice against people with legitimate medical conditions.

[BBCup]

07:48 PM on 11/10/2009

The corporate economy thrives on obesity. Billions upon billions are made every year by the health care machine, the diet industries, the food manufacturing industries, and the fast food industries.

Insurance companies will give them insurance and collect their money until they actually have to use it then they're dropped like hot potatoes (without a return of their premiums) calling their excessive weight an 'self inflicted' illness.

The entertainment industry profits from being able to attack the obese without worrying about political correctness, the fashion industry profits by elevating an equally unhealthy lifestyle by maligning another, and the Government and it's citizens have someone to blame for all their problems.

[Moshe]

06:08 PM on 11/10/2009

By that standard most Americans are felons.

[RationalDubSteppa]

05:47 PM on 11/10/2009

Boy o boy! We NEED this here in the states. There are way too many fatty's running around here. It really is time that we take health seriously and yes that does mean a slimmer waistline.

[trinity]

04:50 PM on 11/10/2009

But what is the definition of obese in Japan? I remember looking on eBay for clothes once...the clothing from this Japanese company had measurements for an XL at what would be a size 8/10 in this country.

[Bitsko]

03:26 PM on 11/10/2009

Silly as it is, the law is a guideline (for people over 40), and doesn't make anyone a criminal.

[CoconutLime]

02:48 PM on 11/10/2009

Some people may have hormone problems which cause them to gain weight. This law is discriminatory IMO.

[RationalDubSteppa]

05:45 PM on 11/10/2009

That's just a cop out. If you have a hormone problem you will be big but not over wieght.

[AZterritory]

02:47 PM on 11/10/2009

Wow--if this was in play here half the visitors to Walmart on a Saturday would get arrested.

[kareemachan]

03:50 PM on 11/10/2009

Only half?

[RationalDubSteppa]

05:46 PM on 11/10/2009

LMAO!!!

[jsijason]

02:32 PM on 11/10/2009

Makes sense in some ways, extremely obese people paying more into medical care for seniors, because chances are they are going to be a burden for others in the long run.

Obviously a can of worms, because of the question: Do people have the right to be fat and unhealthy?

Who determines what Fat and Unhealthy is?

[amdezurik]

07:40 PM on 11/10/2009

plus those words do not automatically go together, lots of skinny folks get cancer and other conditions that suck up a lot of money. so whom else would you toss to the side?