Fat in Japan? You're breaking the law.

This article and especially the title is grossly misleading and you should retract several parts. Let me say this, no one, absolutely no one in Japan is being punished by law for being overweight the so-called 'counseling' you are referring to is simply the doctor making some suggestions on how you could lose weight. It is not some kind of mandatory community service where you could be arrested or fined. By reading this article one would think that the police are going around measuring peoples' waists.

I am so sick of these inaccurate articles about Japan. These are the type of shoddy, exaggerated, poorly researched articles that lead to the Mainichi Daily News being shut down.

Diggers: Bury this article.

Unbelievable.

Where exactly did you get the idea that it is illegal to be fat in Japan? Oh, I know, you made it up to sensationalize the second-largest economy in the world, because they are so wacky and mysterious.

Here's how it works: When your company gives the free annual health checkups required by law (required for the company to offer them, not for you to take them, but they are quick, comprehensive, and free--Just did mine this morning!), if the results show too many people over the (admittedly preposterously small) arbitrary waistline chosen by the idiot old men running the country, the company will have to pay more to the insurance company to cover the extra costs associated with all the fatties in their employ.

That's it.

Although I believe the story about the woman in the article, that kind of idiotic loyalty to company still exists in Japan; usually, in my experience, among morons who know they'd be the first on the chopping block if the company were to downsize. There's no reason she needs to worry, however; she just doesn't want to be seen as one of the poeple who might bump up everyone's health insurance rates.

So the public/private insurance companies are adding a "fat tax" to organizations with too many fat people, to offset costs.

Not so wacky or mysterious now, is it?

I love this. We need this in America!!

CNN Video on Japanese Fat Fines: http://tinyurl.com/4nzn8w

ABC Article on the same topic: http://tinyurl.com/5shmkx

My comments were erased when the page refreshed.

David Nakamura is a CFR Fellow and award-winning Washington Post reporter, from what I gather. Despite that, I hope not BECAUSE of that, this headline and the article distort the processes, impacts, and outcomes of health policy.

Japan's longer life expectancy and better health are not the outcome of universal health care, lower poverty, better prenatal care, lack of firearms, slow traffic, and a lot more looking out for the other guy. No. Japan is better off because of Fat Police and Fat Laws.

What a wonderful implication for American people. Thanks to your article, they will be able to rest assured that they have the best healthcare system in the world, where people can be free from FAT PANELS, discrimination in the workplace, and government intervention with respect to the depth of their navel. USA! USA!

An award winning journalist has reduced effective health policy-making to the absurd, presumably to make it palatable for an American audience. What a terrible disservice. America could learn a lot from Japan, but it won't... no thanks to Mr. Nakamura and the Council on Foriegn Relations.

This sounds exaggerated to me, based on what little bit I know of Japan, but I guess it's possible.

For the people lauding a plan like is described in the article, I have a question. What do you do about the people who aren't obese, but the obesity indicator numbers say they are?

For example, I am now fat. I admit this (several years of being stuck doing research and working a fairly sedentary job will do that...). However, a few years ago I was able to pass the Army's Special Forces Entrance Physical, and before that I was able to jog C.A.P.'s 20 mile Search and Rescue qualifications test without ever stopping. My breaks consisted of slowing to 5-10 minutes of walking. Yet, no matter when BMI (America's obesity measure) was taken, I was ALWAYS in the range of Obese to Morbidly Obese, depending on who made the scale in a given year. It didn't matter that, at the time, I was pretty much a walking tube of muscle; the numbers said I was loaded with fat. Everyone I've ever known who isn't a beanpole has had the same issues as well when they've been in a field of work that has BMI checkups.

So I reiterate, if you make a counseling plan for obese people how do you deal with people who are like I was? Do they just get to be bugged by some bureaucrat, who only looks at numbers and could give a dang less about what may actually be the case, for the rest of their days no matter what?

Hint: Based on how government operates, the answer to this is "Yes, you get to have letters mailed to you complaining about how you're hurting everyone else's insurance rates, etc., with your fatness and that you need to exercise more and eat better...even if your daily exercise is a 2 mile run and other mixed exercises and your diet is balanced."