Essay: Japanese society's tough love on overweight people is good public policy - including its shaming of fat people

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Most individuals are overweight due to their dietary and exercise habits.[1]

The video Japan: Difficult Country For LARGE People makes some excellent points about the societal pressure that the Japanese put on overweight people which includes a "fat tax" and the public shaming of overweight people by Japanese society.[2][3]

Japan's high life expectancy is partly due to its citizen's healthy diet and its low obesity rate (The Japanese diet is characterized by these type of foods: low red meat, high fish, high plant foods, nonsugar-sweetened beverages, and root vegetables).[4][5][6]

Most individuals are overweight due to their dietary and exercise habits.[7] And gluttony and sloth are sins according to the Bible.[8][9]

The health risks of obesity are high (See: Health risks linked to obesity) which adds to a country's healthcare cost burden plus there is a lot of needless pain and suffering imposed on both individuals and families by individuals' poor weight management.

Preventive medicine refers to medical methods taken to prevent diseases and/or injuries rather than treating them once they have already occurred.

According to the medical journal Lancet:

“ A substantial proportion of poor health in populations is preventable. Previous work from the Global Burden of Diseases, Injuries, and Risk Factors Study1 suggests that nearly half of all health burden in the USA is attributable to a list of 84 modifiable risk factors. Globally, it is also generally accepted that a quarter, or perhaps up to half, of all deaths fall into the category of preventable deaths, making illness that can at least theoretically be avoided an accepted part of our health accounting.

In The Lancet Public Health, Howard Bolnick and colleagues extend this logic in the US context and quantify the proportion of US health-care spending in 2016 that was due to preventable causes.3 They found that more than a quarter (27·0%, 95% uncertainty interval [UI] 25·7–28·4) of health-care spending was due to these preventable illnesses.[10]

”

The success of Japan's "fat tax"

The flag of Japan

The epidemic of obese people and other overweight people, which is a man-made tragedy, is a well-known phenomenon affecting most of the world's population.[11]

The 2021 article The Country That Taxes People For Being Too Fat which comments on Japan's very successful "fat tax" indicates:

“ Almost every country has faced this epidemic, and few have managed to truly solve it—all except for one.

Somewhat controversially, this country introduced a ‘fat tax’ that essentially forced every business to take a mandatory waist measurement of its employees every year. If the employee didn’t make any improvements, then the business would be fined. The target was to reduce the obesity rate by 25%, but as of 2021, this country’s nationwide obesity rate stands at a mere 4.3%, making the policy a resounding success.

It might come as no surprise to learn that the country which implemented the fat tax was none other than Japan.

In 2008, it introduced the Metabo law, which required all men and women aged between 40 and 74 to have their waist measured by their employer on an annual basis. The limits were set to 33.5 inches (85cm) for men and 35.4 inches (90cm) for women, and anyone who breached these figures was required to attend weight loss classes funded by the employer's health insurance company. In essence, it meant that if you were at risk of becoming obese, your company was required by law to help you get back into shape. In addition, if companies could not reduce the number of overweight employees by certain thresholds each year, they would be subject to fines and be required to pay money into a health care program for the elderly.[12]

”

What is it like being fat in Japan? (One of the healthiest countries in the world). Widespread fat shaming in Japan

Why sumo wrestlers are not publicly shamed like the rest of the fat people in Japan

Sumo wrestling ceremony in Japan.

Sumo wrestlers are not publicly shamed like the rest of the fat people in Japan.

Most societies have exceptions to rules and conventions. Japan is no different.

Societal shaming works. There is no reason why widespread fat shaming and other societal pressures/policies can't work (which Japan has proven)

Societal discouragement of various behaviors - including shaming and ostracism - works as evidenced by the lack of gay pride parades in Amish communities and Islamic countries (See also: Religious Upbringing and Culture Affects Rates of Homosexuality).

Given that most individuals are overweight due to their dietary and exercise habits[13], societal pressure to avoid gluttony, sloth and have better diet and exercise habits will work. It is working in Japan society which uses financial penalties, fat shaming, and other societal practices to lower obesity in their country.

An Amish farm near Morristown, New York.

While societal shaming, including fat shaming, can have negative effects in some cultures such as Western societies where it is not done enough and not buttressed by other societal public policies and practices, Japan combination of these factors is working as evidenced by their low societal obesity rate and the countries high longevity of its population at large.

Social influence and weight gain

Most individuals are overweight due to their dietary and exercise habits.[14]

See also: Social influence

The article You’re NOT The Average Of The Five People You Surround Yourself With states:

“ The first major study on the breadth of social influence was conducted by Nicholas Christakis and James Fowler. The duo was examined the data set from the Framingham Heart Study, one of the largest and longest running health studies ever, when they realized that it covered more than just the heart health of the participants. They were studied for all sorts of medical conditions, and during interviews they were probed with all sorts of demographic questions, including questions about family members and friends.

So they started analyzing the data to see what the effects of family members and friends was on something fairly easy and objective: obesity. According to their results, if a friend of yours becomes obese, you yourself are 45 percent more likely than chance to gain weight over the next two to four years. More surprisingly, however, Christakis and Fowler found that if a friend of your friend becomes obese, your likelihood of gaining weight increases by about 20 percent — even if you don’t know that friend of a friend. The effect continues one more person out. If a friend of the friend of your friend develops obesity, you are still 10 percent more likely than random chance to gain weight as well.

Your friends make you fat, but so do their friends, and so do their friends of friends.[15]

”

Why is it so easy for Japanese to be thin?

Obesity and its negative impact on intelligence. Societal wealth and labor productivity/innovation/technology

Obesity and its negative impact on intelligence

See also: Obesity and its negative impact on intelligence

Medical research indicates that excess weight impairs brain function.[16]

Intelligence is a person's capacity to receive, apply, and retain information.

Medical science studies indicate that excess weight impairs brain function (See: Obesity and its negative impact on intelligence)[17]

On October 15, 2006, The Telegraph reported in an article entitled The greater your weight, the lower your IQ, say scientists:

“ It is bad for your blood pressure, knocks years off your life and is a strain on your heart. Now scientists have discovered that gaining weight lowers your intelligence.

The findings follow last week's government figures that show Britain as the "fat man" of Europe, with nearly a quarter of adults and more than 14 per cent of children under 16 classified as obese.

The new five-year study of more than 2,200 adults claims to have found a link between obesity and the decline in a person's cognitive function. The research, conducted by French scientists, which is published in this month's Neurology journal, involved men and women aged between 32 and 62 taking four mental ability tests that were then repeated five years later.

The researchers found that people with a Body Mass Index – a measure of body fat – of 20 or less could recall 56 per cent of words in a vocabulary test, while those who were obese, with a BMI of 30 or higher, could remember only 44 per cent.[18]

”

For more information, please see: Obesity and its negative impact on intelligence

Societal wealth and labor productivity/innovation/technology

Obviously a person with obesity related cognitive impairment is going to be less productive in the workforce and in general. And labor productivity, creativity and innovation creates a massive amount of wealth in countries as can be seen in the below articles:

Innovation and countries going from middle-income countries to high-income countries

See also: Innovation

Below are articles on innovation and countries going from middle-income countries to high-income countries:


"The measure of intelligence is the ability to change." -Albert Einstein

Bible scientific foreknowledge and gluttony/sloth

See also: Bible scientific foreknowledge and Health risks linked to obesity and Obesity and its negative impact on intelligence and Obesity

Biblical scientific foreknowledge is the assertion that the Bible possessed scientific knowledge beyond that which is believed to exist at the time the Bible was written.

According to the Bible, both gluttony and sloth are sins.[19][20]

Most individuals are overweight due to their dietary and exercise habits.[21]

There is medical science evidence linking obesity to various health risks (See: Health risks linked to obesity and Obesity and its negative impact on intelligence).

The Bible is the best-selling book of all time.[22]

Between 5 to 7 billion Bibles have been published.

Attention all supporters of the fat acceptance movement. I will never accept your fatness. Lose some weight

See: Attention all supporters of the fat acceptance movement. I will never accept your fatness. Lose some weight

Fat jokes and humor

Movie scenes:

See also

References

  1. ↑
  2. ↑ Japan: Difficult Country For LARGE People
  3. ↑ The Country That Taxes People For Being Too Fat
  4. ↑ Why do the Japanese have the highest life expectancy in the world?
  5. ↑ Why has Japan become the world’s most long-lived country: insights from a food and nutrition perspective, European Journal of Clinical Nutrition, Published: 13 July 2020
  6. ↑ I’m a nutritionist from Japan, home to the world’s longest-living people—here are 5 longevity foods we eat every day, CNBC, 2023
  7. ↑
  8. ↑ Bible verses on gluttony
  9. ↑ Bible verses on sloth
  10. ↑ The cost of preventable disease in the USA, Lancet, Open Access. Published: October, 2020. DOI:https://doi.org/10.1016/S2468-2667(20)30204-8
  11. ↑ Globesity: the root causes of the obesity epidemic in the USA and now worldwide, Pediatric Endocrinology Reviews, 2014 Sep;12(1):17-34.
  12. ↑ The Country That Taxes People For Being Too Fat
  13. ↑
  14. ↑
  15. ↑ You’re NOT The Average Of The Five People You Surround Yourself With
  16. ↑
  17. ↑
  18. ↑ The greater your weight, the lower your IQ, say scientists, By Nina Goswami, The Telegraph, 12:01AM BST 15 Oct 2006
  19. ↑ Bible verses on gluttony
  20. ↑ Bible verses on sloth
  21. ↑
  22. ↑ The Bible is the best selling book of all time, Guinness Book of Word Record
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