Illegal to be overweight in Japan

[BigNorm]

i stumbled upon this article and was shocked:

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

they start it out with citizens between the ages of 40 and 75, but probably gonna expand it. if men are above the mandatory 33.5 inch waistline, they must lose the wieght or go in for re-education. i hate the word re-education. it was used to "re-educate" people about the "Jewish problem" in Germany in WWII. among other times as well. one professor states it should be done in America where there are many overweight people. i say over my dead body. what, are overweight people the new kind of people to be hated? i understand losing weight for health, but it shouldn't be law, and it makes me feel bad for the Japanese people. That's why i love America. anyway, feel free to prove me wrong, i may have missed something, but this just seems totally wrong.

 

[tk0]

This is completely ridiculous. I doubt they'd be able to enforce this. People might start to wear 5 pairs of pants each just to mess with them xD

 

[TyrantRaveAB]

dude. im moving to japan. no offence to fat ppl. lol

 

[GRM13]

Although I have always enjoyed japan for their culture, Their laws and the way they handle certain things is terrible and makes it look like Japan is trying to become a Utopian culture that everything is perfect and there are no problems. This makes it look even worse.

 

[shadowscurse1]

well i guess if your a sumo wrestler your kinda screwed lol. I think thats crap, if you want to eat what you want and not care about your weight then you should be allowed too. If someone comes along and says you cant do that then what stops me from saying sorry you cant breathe this air its polluted =P.

 

[Dragonflame16]

Aw hell

Damn if this goes through ill have to be sent in IM TO BEAUTIFUL NO

 

[BigNorm]

dude. im moving to japan. no offence to fat ppl. lol

have fun there. what with all your other rights stripped away too.

 

[thedude7271]

Please, American laws aren't much better...

Trans fats have already been banned in New York and marijuana is still illegal. We don't always have freedom of choice, yet our leaders have freedom to choose for us.. hmmm

 

[BigNorm]

Please, American laws aren't much better...

Trans fats have already been banned in New York and marijuana is still illegal. We don't always have freedom of choice, yet our leaders have freedom to choose for us.. hmmm

well, in that case i better go live in your country cause it's soooo free.🙄🙄

i didn't say America was the best, just we have the most freedom, and the freedoms that count, we have. who cares about Pot? it's bad for ya and most countries ban it too.

i take it you live in Amsterdam? that's one of the most famous weed countries.

 

[TyrantRaveAB]

hmm. yeah... thats true. didnt think about that one! lol

 

[QueenBeeBeeMari]

Well the people in Japan are all already toothpicks.We can't imagine having such a law because all of our foods are so rich in sauces and spices such as salt and pepper.Now I know we have our version of Chinese and Japanese foods as well as Mexican but in the real countries the foods aren't like that.There culture is also very different then ours.Americans are spoiled with fine tasting foods and we aren't really taught the harmful effects of excessively eating and eating to much junk foods.However in other countries they do not use salt or really any spices and if they do they use very little.They are not that spoiled with sugary items and their focus is mainly on sporty,Athletic type things.Except Mexico they just.....I don't know what's up with them.It is sort of like the fact that American children like peanut butter and jelly but British children do not;their culture is very different from ours'.So while we can't imagine having that law applied to over here,the Japanese could be really happy and thrilled to have a law that makes their country look a little bit better and more healthy then other ones or at least in their opinion.

 

[Rox_My_Sox1]

I like Japan's video games and anime but that's as far as my likes about the Japanese go. This is due to three reasons:

Reason 1: What the Japanese due to Dolphins.

Reason 2: The continuing prejudice against the constantly diminishing anu ethnicity (the original inhabitants of Japan I believe).

Reason 3: Unit 731

 

[soldier12345r1]

I think its great. Should implement something like that here in America.

 

[BigNorm]

I think its great. Should implement something like that here in America.

so the government should control the way and amount you eat? why stop there? how about let the government randomly pick our life partners out of a lottery. that'd be a great way to end divorce and gay marriages.🙄

government control over the people is rarely a good thing. it's borderline tyranny. and we all know tyranny and absolute rule over a population works so well.🙄

i understand incentives to lose weight, but you can't demand people lose wieght or they'll be punished. it's lunacy.

I like Japan's video games and anime but that's as far as my likes about the Japanese go. This is due to three reasons:

Reason 1: What the Japanese due to Dolphins.

Reason 2: The continuing prejudice against the constantly diminishing anu ethnicity (the original inhabitants of Japan I believe).

Reason 3: Unit 731

i totally agree. but i'm very curious now what is Unit 731.

Japan may be a beautiful country, and they may sell great prodeucts, but i'd never want to visit there. it's just the total opposite of what i'm about.

 

[Timewarp]

Everybody is taking a side in the argument but one side i've yet to see. The side of the average Japanese. Think about it. They live a life of strict rules, honor, self discipline and borderline robotlike working. And that doesn't really bug them at all. To the avearage man in Japan, this law probably wouldn't even make a significantly raised eyebrow if they posted it on every arcade corner in the city. Admitly to them this would only be significant to the lower percentage of the deviant population or residential foriengers.

Stop playing the secret agenda game and think outside the box. If you're going to bash a country's laws do some background reasearch. Sure it's not acceptable in our country and/or some others but there is nothing outside infulence can do about it if the people inside it don't seem to be bothered by it. Besides, and personally, they have 1 billion people packed on an island, someone's got to share the sushi around the table.

 

[Rox_My_Sox1]

i totally agree. but I'm very curious now what is Unit 731.

It was a biological weapons development program under the Empire of Japan. They performed experiments on live human beings (including Americans, Russians, and Chinese) such as vivisection, surgery, and exposure to various ways to kill a human being.

It was just as bad as the Nazi experiments on human beings only we granted all the doctors we caught of Unit 731 immunity to prosecution in return for their research (one of the many things I hate about my own country). We then used their research to produce bio-weapons that were rumored to have been used in Korea and Vietnam.

Here is a site of info for ya:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unit_731

This is not to say Japan was the only nation who did stuff like this. Our own CIA performed brain surgery experiments on Korean pows in experimentation to try and control their minds and thus make them more "friendly" to the USA. Whenever someone tells me Hell isn't a just punishment I always think to myself, gee, what punishment would suit a Japanese or American doctor who performed human experiments on live human beings and ended up killing them painfully?

 

[MistressValerie1]

According to reason.com, the Japanese law will not impose penalties on overweight people, but will require doctors to provide health education and will levy monetary fines on employers and municipalities which fail to meet certain weight-loss goals.

 

[polakyyyy]

Totalitarianism is fun!

 

[general zod1]

I like Japan's video games and anime but that's as far as my likes about the Japanese go. This is due to three reasons:

Reason 1: What the Japanese due to Dolphins.

Reason 2: The continuing prejudice against the constantly diminishing anu ethnicity (the original inhabitants of Japan I believe).

Reason 3: Unit 731

Don't forget Godzilla and company
:yowza::eek2:

 

[BigNorm]

It was a biological weapons development program under the Empire of Japan. They performed experiments on live human beings (including Americans, Russians, and Chinese) such as vivisection, surgery, and exposure to various ways to kill a human being.

It was just as bad as the Nazi experiments on human beings only we granted all the doctors we caught of Unit 731 immunity to prosecution in return for their research (one of the many things I hate about my own country). We then used their research to produce bio-weapons that were rumored to have been used in Korea and Vietnam.

Here is a site of info for ya:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unit_731

This is not to say Japan was the only nation who did stuff like this. Our own CIA performed brain surgery experiments on Korean pows in experimentation to try and control their minds and thus make them more "friendly" to the USA. Whenever someone tells me Hell isn't a just punishment I always think to myself, gee, what punishment would suit a Japanese or American doctor who performed human experiments on live human beings and ended up killing them painfully?

now i wonder if that is how VX gas was made. that's some pretty nasty sh*t.

According to reason.com, the Japanese law will not impose penalties on overweight people, but will require doctors to provide health education and will levy monetary fines on employers and municipalities which fail to meet certain weight-loss goals.

right, fines on the employers, so if someone doesn't lose weight they can risk getting fired.


but i did forget to mention the Japanese sense of loyaloty and devotion. their way of thinking is totally different, and we can't begin to know what it's like for them. like suicide bombers going to a 72-virgin heaven for killing infadels in the terrorist enriched middle east.

people think differently, and sometimes, there's just no reasoning with them.

 

[Dr. Bill Kobb]

I was listening to a report on N.P.R.* about a similar weight-reduction campaign going on in Thailand, aimed at the youth. Apparently, it's had fantastic results, but it's also led to much social stigmatism amongst the children, with the overweight kids being sequestered from the rest.





*National Public Radio here Stateside

 

[Featherfall]

I like Japan's video games and anime but that's as far as my likes about the Japanese go. This is due to three reasons:

Reason 1: What the Japanese due to Dolphins.

Reason 2: The continuing prejudice against the constantly diminishing anu ethnicity (the original inhabitants of Japan I believe).

Reason 3: Unit 731

Dolphins are evil man-killing creatures (okay, so the guy was sticking a stick in it's blow-hole and asking for it, but still) that sometimes beat baby dolphins of other pods and porpoise to death just so they can play with their carcasses; don't be fooled by stories of them saving us from sharks and drowning, it's merely part of their master plan to gain our trust and when we least expect it take over the world!/conspiracy

Other than that, yeah totally agree. This law is the latest example of Japan trying to be oh-so-perfect, an attitude that has plagued them since the very beginning of their nation's existence; it's why they are so resistant to the very idea of change (rather than just bad changes) I think.

 

[PurrBast]

I suppose I didn't read into this nearly as negatively as others did.

My thought was that now seeing obesity as an epidemic across the world due to inflation, rising poverty, and unhealthy foods offered at lower prices, Japan looked to make headway on the expanding waistlines of their citizens. I don't know how insurance works in Japan, but typically certain health issues are associated with weight gain and if the society as a whole has to cover it, encouragement to remain healthier would be the aim. I know I read many stories about children in Japan gaining increasing amounts of weight as sweets and other foods became more available.

The one disagreement I would have is that it seems silly to set inches for someone because all body shapes are different. It would seem more realistic to base something off from a bmi measurement or simply to encourage healthier lifestyles in general. Someone who doesn't have that waistline may very well be healthier than someone who doesn't. The inches across someone is doesn't always tie in with good health.

:bluestar:

 

[Meka1]

According to reason.com, the Japanese law will not impose penalties on overweight people, but will require doctors to provide health education and will levy monetary fines on employers and municipalities which fail to meet certain weight-loss goals.

that makes sense, because i was confused..i was wondering "well what are they going to do if someone is over weight? Throw them in jail or something?"..so thanks for clearing that up:ggrin:

 

[AgentSugar691]

have fun there. what with all your other rights stripped away too.

Talk about over-exaggerating.

As a foreigner in Japan, you have all the rights of a normal citizen. The only exception is that you cannot vote in national elections. I've yet to have the Japanese Gestapo bust into my home and threaten to "steal my rights away."

In fact, most people I meet are very fascinated to simply be around me; being a foreigner garners a lot of attention, but most of it is positive. I had one girl walk up to me on the street and talk about how much she likes my hair [it's red and wavy], then try her best to speak to me in English [which was only at whatever level they were teaching her in high school]. It was really sweet and endearing.

Yes, Japan places far too much emphasis on being in a certain weight category, which leads to high amounts of anorexic teenagers and the like. However, I would hardly qualify this as some sort of totalitarian movement.