I watched an absolutely fascinating video at CNN.com today and I felt the need to share it. Apparently, Japanese companies are now federally obligated to measure the waist sizes of their employees. Anyone with a waist size over the government mandated minimum (33.5 inches for men, 35.5 inches for women) will cause their company to receive hefty fines.
I'm not against national health initiatives or company sponsored fitness programs, but this sounds crazy. Mandatory waist measurements? Really? Can you imagine this happening in the US? I sure can't. People would be suing for weight based discrimination and harassment everywhere you'd turn. I mean, doesn't this violate the personal liberties of overweight Japanese citizens? Does that even matter in Japanese culture? I'd love to hear some opinions on this subject. Do you think this is a good idea to keep citizens fit, or is it discrimination? Would you allow yourself to be measured every day? Leave me a message in the comments.
Japan fights fat (this would never happen in America)
Labels:
civil liberties,
fat,
fines,
japan,
japanese companies,
overweight,
waist measurements
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1 comments:
It`s not really that crazy if you consider the costs and other negative effects of an over-weight population. It would never fly here, but is that really a good thing? I wouldn`t support governmental regulation of peoples weight either; however I would love to see something done so that americans don`t eat themselves to death. I mean, should we really encourage people to be comfortable with themselves when they barely fit into size 46 jeans?
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