With the exception of the sumo wrestlers - those athletes whose careers depend on how massive they are - Japan is not a country you would expect has a huge problem with obesity. But they have a word for it - Metabo - and of late, they have posters with cute fat manga characters extolling the virtues of keeping your weight down and not being obese. Perhaps "obese" would not be the right word; it's all part of the government's program to get Japan to be in perfect shape and lose that extra recalcitrant inch or two. And somehow, the Japanese are all caught up in this. Ordinary people in cities and towns across the country, are getting government summons to report to neighborhood health clinics. The government prescribes that men should have waistlines that are no greater than 33.5 inches, and women, no larger than 35.4 inches. If you go even a half inch above, you are branded Metabo and they'll be on your case, offering you endless motivation to lose weight.
All of this is comes from a piece of legislation that came into effect a few months ago that says that all district authorities and employers need to give everyone over 40 a yearly checkup to check their health. That would be about 50 million waists to measure. It's an International Diabetes Federation guideline, because people who are on the path to obesity, place themselves at risk of late onset diabetes. So what happens when you go for your checkup, and you are found to not measure up? If you have an inch or two more than you should, and you also have a health problem to do with your weight like high blood pressure, they'll start you off by giving you dieting advice, and they'll ask you to report back in three months. In image-conscious Japan, often, being pulled up by the authorities for being out of line is all the motivation to lose weight they'll need.
But if in spite of all the best intentions, they are unable to shape up in the given time, they are sent to more doctors for better weight-loss education. The government in Japan sets its goals at a 10% reduction in its overweight population over the next four years. And if districts and governments do not manage to meet targets, they'll be made to pay penalties. They look at America with its out-of-control health-care expenses, and they tell themselves that they're not going to allow themselves to get in a situation where everyone is free to get as fat and as unhealthy as they want, and still look to Medicare for their healthcare. That could easily bankrupt the government - as it indeed has done over here.
Would you believe that when Japan's Prime Minister recently publicly toyed with an idea that older people could be made to pay a little more for their health insurance, he received the first parliamentary censure in the history of the country? Wonder what it would be like over here if the government allowed an insurance company to raise its premiums, and that got President Obama impeached. In a country where they value their elders and a right to health care so much, a government initiative is all the motivation to lose weight that the population needs. But there is no need to worry that much about the state of American health. As much as obesity is a problem in America, on average, American men are still an inch short of what the International Diabetes Federation recommends. Women in America however, do have something to worry about. Women here are 2 inches over the safety line. It would be definitely not be the traditional American way to get people to sign up for weight loss as part of a government order; but it really would get the job done.