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ORIGINAL: kitken01

Just read about the Japanese government lining everyone up to have their waistlines measured. They must fall within very specific measurements or there will be consequences. The goverment says it is to control rising healthcare costs -- however, I personally feel it's just another example of their making everyone conform to the standards they prescribe.

What if this was to happen here? How would you react? If our waists must measure a certain number, should our eyes also be a certain color? How about your height? How about your children's? And if you don't "measure up," what steps will they take next to make sure you do conform?

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Some experts say the government’s guidelines on everything from waistlines to blood pressure are so strict that meeting, or exceeding, those targets will be impossible. They say that the government’s real goal is to shift health care costs onto the private sector.

Dr. Minoru Yamakado, an official at the Japan Society of Ningen Dock, an association of doctors who administer physical exams, said he endorsed the government’s campaign and its focus on preventive medicine.

But he said that the government’s real priority should be to reduce smoking rates, which remain among the highest among advanced nations, in large part because of Japan’s powerful tobacco lobby.

“Smoking is even one of the causes of metabolic syndrome,” he said. “So if you’re worried about metabo, stopping people from smoking should be your top priority.”

Despite misgivings, though, Japan is pushing ahead.

Kizashi Ohama, an official in Matsuyama, a city that has also acted aggressively against metabo, said he would leave the debate over the campaign’s merits to experts and health officials in Tokyo.

At Matsuyama’s public health clinic, Kinichiro Ichikawa, 62, said the government-approved 33.5-inch male waistline was “severe.” He is 5-foot-4, weighs only 134 pounds and knows no one who is overweight.

“Japan shouldn’t be making such a fuss about this,” he said before going off to have his waistline measured.

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But on a shopping strip here, Kenzo Nagata, 73, a toy store owner, said he had ignored a letter summoning him to a so-called special checkup. His waistline was no one’s business but his own, he said, though he volunteered that, at 32.7 inches, it fell safely below the limit. He planned to disregard the second notice that the city was scheduled to mail to the recalcitrant.

“I’m not going,” he said. “I don’t think that concerns me.”

quote:

ORIGINAL: kitken01

Just read about the Japanese government lining everyone up to have their waistlines measured. They must fall within very specific measurements or there will be consequences. The goverment says it is to control rising healthcare costs -- however, I personally feel it's just another example of their making everyone conform to the standards they prescribe.

What if this was to happen here? How would you react? If our waists must measure a certain number, should our eyes also be a certain color? How about your height? How about your children's? And if you don't "measure up," what steps will they take next to make sure you do conform?