Wow what a coincidence! Look what I found…
Article – http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/japan/091109/fat-japan-youre-breaking-the-law
Video – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L1hqHo6lyUU
Japan has set a limit on how obese their employees can be due to the fact that citizens have been getting “bigger”. Now we all know the majority of japanese people are not…that big but apparently bigger is no good to the Japanese Government. As the video says, the invasion of Mcdonalds introduced a new diet on fast food…compared to the typical Japanese meal which has only around 600 calories…a Mcdonald’s meal consist of calories twice as much. Such a coincidence after reading chapter 10 of Fast Food Nation ahahaha. But yeah companies are encouraged to slim down their employees or the company will have invest more into a health care program. In my opinion, this is a great move by the Japanese government. By doing this, more citizens will be fit and the government will save money due to less obesity-related health care problems. I’m looking forward to see how this goes.
So what do you guys think of this? Would it work in America? I mean like…if this was established right now in America, SOOOOO many companies and employees would break the law….
“Japanese lawmakers last year set a maximum waistline size for anyone age 40 and older: 85 centimeters (33.5 inches) for men and 90 centimeters (35.4 inches) for women”
The law makes sense to me because eating cheap fast food could save up people’s money initially but at the end they might end up spending more on their health related issues shifting the burden of obesity problems on government too. With minimal obesity levels, the government can worry about other more issues that could develop the country more.
This is America and, unfortuantely, buried among your unalienable rights somewhere is the right to eat yourself to death. Any restriction on eating habits will result in chaos. Americans already feel that the government has too much power as it is. Besides as we’ve all seen, fast food as an industry is big bucks. Corporations will probably fight tooth and nail to keep people obese.
wow! that’s crazy. but i dont think that it would work in the United States. so many people are already obesed and some are even born that way. to put a law out like that would be impossible even though it would help decrease health problems.
i think it will certainly be a great idea to have these limitation on the Americans. But it will just be impossible to enforce the law. Fast food started in the United States and its speading so fast that there is almost no way to just change people’s way of eating in the US.
I agree that it is a good for their health but I don’t think that anyone should be forced to lose weight just to get a certain job. That’s job discrimination. People shouldn’t be told what they can and cannot eat and how often they can eat.
Americans find things like this to be a complete violation of our rights. We often take things like weight and other features to be expressions of our styles. On the other hand, there is a lot more uniformity in other cultures. For this reason, they can attempt to adjust their citizen as they seem fit.
I think its absolutely wrong putting someones job in jeopardy because of their weight size. BUT, on the flip side, it would really give an incentive for people to attempt to lose weight. I honestly dont think it would work. There would be so many people out of work in america. There would be so many people losing their jobs this way. Not to mention the chaos and the riots that would take place. This “law” would definitely be an infringement on peoples rights.
This is definitely a good move by the Japanese government. But I do not see this happening here any time soon. Since smaller waistline means eating less which takes a toll on the delicate balance of supply and demand haha. And of course giving the government the right to control what we consume (how much we consume), Americans will just see it as a violation of our freedom.
I think that eliminating half the American workforce wouldn’t be such a good idea. Besides, we already know how the fast food industry works. Such laws would be challenged in court quickly as its bad for business and violates a ton of freedoms. So its easy to see this would not hold up here in America.
Nonetheless, I would support it. Who doesn’t want a healthier nation? =]
Well the government in a way isn’t really forcing people what they can eat. They just have to be under a certain waistline ahahah. I mean like they can eat mcdonalds if they work it off.
I think in some ways it’s good to force the employees to be fit, because as you said less people will have health problems related to their weight. It’s not only good for the employees but also the companies who won’t pay a a lot of money to their employees’ healthcare. BUT on the other hand come on, how can the government tell people what to eat and how to look? in some ways, that is what Stalin did during communism, he forced people to do whatever he wanted them to do. This new law completely goes against American ideologies, but then again it’s happening in Japan so I guess Japanese people will be OK with it……………..:)