An article in today’s New York Times describes the Japanese government’s efforts to head-off an obesity crisis that includes prescribed limits for male and female waistlines.
Exceed the limit and you’ll be classified as “metabo”, the preferred term to “overweight.”
Japan isn’t known as being a particularly portly country, but apparently the Ministry of Health wants to be proactive when it comes to preventing diabetes and other obesity-related illnesses.
This may seem like an extreme measure, but Japan, like many European countries, offers its citizens public health care. Obesity is expensive and as long as governments are footing the bill, it’s in their best interest to keep their citizens healthy.
Obesity costs this country $117 billion a year and it’s a price we all pay, from higher insurance premiums to underwriting Medicare. Perhaps a “measuring tape” healthcare policy could reduce that figure — and ours.