Guess I Won't Be Living In Japan
Have you heard about this Japanese law which sets a maximum waist size for each person in the country? If you are over it then you are breaking the law and will also probably get fired from your job. Companies are required to reduce the number of overweight people in their companies by 10 percent in 2012 and 25% in 2015. If you don't measure up, then you will be fired because the company doesn't want to pay huge government fines.
It isn't exactly like Japan was swimming in fat people anyway. With the exception of sumo wrestlers Japan is already the slimmest industrialized nation and home to Ralph Lauren orgasms all day long.
So, would you like to know if you are breaking the law? Well, if you are 40 years old an a woman your waist can not be any larger than 35.4 inches and if you are a man it is 33.5 inches. So, by my calculations I am about 20 inches over that magical number. In the article I read they don't mention guidelines for younger people so presumably they can be as fat as they want until they reach a certain age.
One woman highlighted in the story was so scared about the 4 pounds she gained last year that in the week prior to her exam she only ate vegetable soup and exercised for 30 minutes a day. Presumably she burned off those 4.5 pounds and probably binged like crazy the day after her exam.
15 comments:
There are fat people in Japan??
(Besides the sumo wrestlers).
Maybe that's what the US should do, instead of taxing all the good unhealthy stuff... wait, the government would never go for that. Much better to make $ off of us. Screw our health.
This should be your new fb profile picture!!!
that's insane for a man! My hubby is tall and has always been a 36 inch waist for most of his adult life. Even in his young days he was a 34. He's 6'2" btw. Hopefully not too many tall Japanese men out there. Crazy!
Wow. Do they not have some sort of civil rights law to fight this?!
It is hard to believe that they don't take your skeletal size into account. I guess they are breeding for potbellied dwarfs.
omg that picture. my eyes, MY EYES!
"An estimated 56 million Japanese will have their waists measured this year."
Wonder who gets that job?
There goes my job.
this may not be the best way to deal with the problem but at least they're doing SOMEthing. obesity is rampant and it's far more damaging than anyone wants to admit.
the politicians in this country won't do it. why? because their constituents are FAT and so are many of them.
I'd actually love love LOVE for my work to have a similar, but far less strict policy...That would mean we'd most likely have a free gym in the building and get out early/come in late to work out, right? Paying 70 bucks a month for a gym I never have time to go to SUCKS.
I'm fucked.
braverwoman- so am I...
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