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)

If you missed robot week on ChangeWaves a while back, don't fret: robots are still on S)T's radar. A few weeks ago, The Economist profiled the future of robots in Japan. Most interestingly, Toyota is now making robotics a central part of its business:

After showing off a white android that played a meek rendition of “Pomp and Circumstance” on the violin, Toyota’s boss, Katsuaki Watanabe, announced that the company would make electro-mechanical critters a core business. Four areas look promising: nursing, cleaning homes, manufacturing and ferrying people short distances (in a sort of automatic wheelchair).

The company confesses it does not have a clear idea which of its robots will take off in the marketplace, but it will start selling them in the early 2010s based on customer needs. Toyota will centralise its robotics R&D division, which is currently in three separate locations around Japan, and double the number of engineers to 200.

Why Japan as the hotbed of robotic activity? It's not just the country's obsession with robots in cartoons. Years of low birthrates in have created a growing senior cohort supported by increasingly fewer offspring. For some in Japan, robots look like a practical solution in the next decade:

“R not I,” quipped one fellow ....That is, “robots, not immigration.” The average Japanese would rather have his bedpan changed by an iron creature comprised of nuts and bolts than by a Chinese or Filipino nurse, he explained.

S)T touched on the robots for eldercare trend a few years back in one of our Japanese generations briefs (download a full-text PDF version of the report from this link).

Image: luisvilla (Flickr)

Image: EverJean (Flickr)This month's Wired magazine features a cover story on the influence of manga (Japanese comics) in the US. Japanese cultural exports like anime (Japanese animation), and manga have been gaining global appeal for many years now, but I was particularly struck by a short article documenting new uses of manga in Western cultures. Businesses outside of Japan are creating original manga for advertising, international development, and SAT prep. Celebrities, including Avril Lavigne, are even being featured as characters in manga, while publishing houses are increasingly supporting non-Japanese manga.

The culture surrounding manga in Japan is not limited to youth in the same way it is in the West--in Japan, even bureaucrats are obsessed. Kids, teens, and businessmen can all be spotted reading comics on Tokyo's metro system, and the topics can range from giant robots and magical school girls to serious discourse on Japanese politics and history. Now it seems the West may follow in Japan's footsteps. The author of the Wired article, Daniel Pink, recently told the New York Times that he is going to be publishing his own manga oriented towards a business audience.

Perhaps manga will grow up in the West alongside its audience, and we'll all be able to read about the latest political scandal as drawn by our favorite manga-ka (manga artist). Regardless of manga's future in the US, its emergence points to continued cultural flows from Japan to the West.

Robot week on Changewaves continues with this story covering the latest in home robots for eldercare in Japan.

We’ve written about home robots before, and even the potential for robots in Japanese eldercare. As the story points out, eldercare is a growing concern for the rapidly aging Japanese. Having rebuilt their country on the back of technology, it is no surprise that the Japanese would turn to technology to alleviate a social problem. As my colleague Mr. Smith points out below, robots have moved past the proof-of-concept stage. The trade show this week in Tokyo ably demonstrates this, with more than 300 sales of units intended to feed people.

But what really interested me about this trade show was not the robots, but the cyborgs. Okay,not really cyborgs (i.e cybernetic organisms, part-human, part-machine) in this case, but rather wearable equipment that boosts or extends human capabilities. On display were vests that allow older people to enhance their capacities in the form of improved arm strength and more control when lifting objects. For all the sci-fi sexiness of robots, this assistive technology is more likely the future of eldercare in places like Japan. Being able to lift a spoon to feed oneself imparts far more dignity than being fed by another, even if the other is your super cool robot pal.

Assistance is one of the 12 values that we identified as shaping technology development in the next 20 years, and these strength vests are a good example of that value in action. Of course, the commercialization of this technology means that in the end, we replace our robots masters with grandpa.

Image: Luis Villa del Campo (Flickr)

The number of hours worked in a year has fallen 11% in Japan since 1991, when the average worker put in 2,030 hours.  It looks to fall further still as the afternoon power nap becomes popular. But far from decrying naps as productivity killers, many managers are counting on them to make Japanese workers more productive.

As if to further ingrain napping into the culture, more schools, including high-pressure middle and high schools, are incorporating them into their programs, especially after a study in Fukuoka prefecture found that children who took 15-20 minute naps in the afternoon had improved concentration in classes.

A cottage industry has sprung up to meet the needs of Japan's new nappers, including nap salons and desk pillows .

It’s nice to see napping get some positive press.

Does the napping trend portend big changes in Japanese society? Probably not, as the main rationale for napping is increased productivity. But young Japanese, who are increasingly rare and continue to bear enormous societal pressures to succeed, may test limits and push napping into new territory.