Some of you may have seen the news that it is now illegal to be fat in Japan. This means having a waistline over 85 centimeters (33.5 inches) for men and 90 centimeters (35.4 inches) for women over 40 years of age.
I’m not sure what the penalties are. I know there are employment penalties, like weight ‘counseling.’
What’s most alarming about the article is that it’s screamingly clear this is a case of outright scapegoating. Official admit that fat people are being targeted because the population is aging, and aging-related diseases that have been mischaracterized as caused by fat, like diabetes and heart disease, are going up. So fat people are being targeted, even though this is clearly a statistical issue tied to a changing demographic, and not anything the Japanese public is doing differently or ‘wrong.’
My heart goes out to all fat Japanese. I hope your government sees the error of its ways, though it’s incredibly unlikely.
I know an American woman who lived in Japan for about 25 years. As a fat woman, and even after losing a great deal of weight (her choice, no judgment here one way or the other), she found the Japanese to be extremely anti-fat. There were many things she liked about Japan, but she certainly hated be pointed at and tittered at in the street for the “crime” of being fat.
Sorry, that’s “being pointed at…”