Japan Wages a War on Obesity: The Way of the Samurai is Not Metabo

Metabo the Japanese nickname for overweight people is a term commonly used in a nation waging a war against obesity. Yes, you read that right, obesity. Now, Japan isn't a country you think of when you hear people talking about losing weight, overweight children and obesity being an epidemic. Unfortunately, that country is the United States. We even have a fairly new term coined called the Western diet that specifically describes our super-sizing, on the go, red meat eating and fried food loving palates.

Taking precautionary measures to a new extreme, Japan is taking no prisoners as it has implemented a national law requiring companies and local governments to measure the waists of people between the ages of 40 and 74. The government limits for women and men respectively are 35.4 inches and 33.5 inches. The average waistline for Japanese women is 28 inches and 32.8 for men; whereas, in the Unites States the average waistline for women is 36.5 inches and 39 inches for men.

This new waistline mandate is similar to measurements established three years earlier by the International Diabetes Federation. With the new law, companies must also measure the waistlines of their employees' family members as well as retirees. Companies like Matsushita, a producer of Panasonic products, will need to measure 80 percent of their employees. But, it doesn't stop there the new law requires that all companies must get 10 percent of their metabo employees to lose weight by 2012. By 2015, each company must increase the drop in their overweight staff by 25 percent. Failing to meet these criteria means facing financial penalties.