Watch out if you're overweight in Japan: the government is starting a new initiative to measure their citizen's waistlines in order to combat obesity. The government will be measuring all Japanese between the ages of 40 and 74, and, believe it or not, actually now has state-legislated guidelines on how large your waist should be. For men, it's 33.5 inches, for women, 35.4 inches.
What happens if your waist isn't as slim as the government wants? The individual recriminations are mild: dieting guidance and health classes. However, Japan is making employers responsible for their employee's health, and businesses will face financial penalties if their employees' waists don't measure up.
This is all in an effort to reduce Japan's obese population by 10% in the next four years and 25% in the next seven years. It all seems a bit much, no? Japan's population is already much less obese than other World 1 countries--only 3.2% of Japanese are considered obese.
Image: Omid Tavallai (Flickr)
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