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Wednesday, June 18, 2008 Government Medical System in Japan Requires Mandatory Waistline Checks By Paul Hsieh @ 12:58 PM According to the June 13, 2008 New York Times, government officials in Japan have instituted a mandatory program where all men and women between ages 40 and 74 must have their waistlines measured and recorded by the government. The purpose of this program is to reduce costs from obesity-related health conditions, because the government health system must pay the bills: Under a national law that came into effect two months ago, companies and local governments must now measure the waistlines of Japanese people between the ages of 40 and 74 as part of their annual checkups. That represents more than 56 million waistlines, or about 44 percent of the entire population. ...To reach its goals of shrinking the overweight population by 10 percent over the next four years and 25 percent over the next seven years, the government will impose financial penalties on companies and local governments that fail to meet specific targets. The country’s Ministry of Health argues that the campaign will keep the spread of diseases like diabetes and strokes in check. The ministry also says that curbing widening waistlines will rein in a rapidly aging society's ballooning health care costs, one of the most serious and politically delicate problems facing Japan today. Most Japanese are covered under public health care or through their work. The government limits are very strict -- "33.5 inches for men and 35.4 inches for women" -- literally a "one-size-fits-all" standard. One Japanese man did express his disdain for the new regulations: ...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." Once a government starts violating individual rights by creating a "universal" health care system, this inevitably leads to further infringements of individual rights. This is not unique to Japan. For instance, universal health care in Great Britain has led to infringements on the right to free speech. In 2007, the British government banned television stations from playing classic 1950's-era humorous advertisements encouraging people to have an egg for breakfast, on the grounds that "the ads do not encourage healthy eating". When a government has to pay for everyone's health care, it will naturally demand a say in whether people are leading a "sufficiently healthy" lifestyle, as defined by the government. Colorado writer Steve Schweitzberger made a similar point in this June 30, 2007 letter in the Rocky Mountain News, referring to universal health care advocate and filmmaker Michael Moore: If Michael Moore has a toothache, it is not my responsibility to pay for his dentistry. If it were, then I would have the right to tell him not to eat sweets. I don't want that kind of government-paid medical policy. Do you? This is a question that all America should be asking. (Cross posted to FIRM blog.) Labels: Health Care, Politics Share |    E-mail Paul Hsieh     PermaLink ()    Comments (New Page)   Subscribe to NoodleFood Blog Posts via Feed Reader   via E-mail Subscribe to NoodleCast Podcasts M4A via iTunes (MP3)   via Feed Reader   via E-mail

Comments
	Wednesday, June 18, 2008 at 15:14:37 mst Comment ID: #1 Name: Charise E-mail: charise.mirabal(at)gmail.com It's funny you posted this today because my children came home from their last day of school with two report cards--one for academics, one for physical fitness. Apparently there is a "Healthy Fitness Zone" [cue Rod Serling voice] for Californian children. My children both passed the physical fitness tests, but it did lead me to wonder, what would have happened if they had not entered in to the "Healthy Fitness Zone?" I expect next year my kids will be coming home with food logs to fill out, making sure they are meeting California school standards for the "Healthy Meal Zone" or possibly schools will incorporate Japanese-like "mandatory waistline checks." If so, I feel bad for the little pre-teen guys that are still working off their baby fat.
	Wednesday, June 18, 2008 at 15:24:06 mst Comment ID: #2 Name: Kyle Haight E-mail: khaight(at)alumni.ucsd.edu URL: http://www.leftist.org/haightspeech/ I don't have kids, and if I did I wouldn't enroll them in public school, but if I did and I did and they brought home a food log, I would have absolutely no compunctions about lying on it. In fact, I'd feel morally obligated to do so -- probably in the most outrageous manner possible. Sure, I feed my kids baking soda and capers at every meal. Doesn't everybody?
	Wednesday, June 18, 2008 at 15:28:30 mst Comment ID: #3 Name: Diana Hsieh E-mail: diana(at)dianahsieh.com URL: http://www.dianahsieh.com/blog My kids would soooo be getting "pig slop" for every meal on their form. When I was growing up, we had a pig named Bertha. My mom used to threaten to feed us her intended meal -- namely vegetable odds and ends discarded in cooking and the like, often a bit smelly -- if we pestered her too much about dinner.
	Wednesday, June 18, 2008 at 16:29:18 mst Comment ID: #4 Name: Charise E-mail: charise.mirabal(at)gmail.com LOL--baking soda, capers and pig slop! I love it! Now I won't be dreading a possible food log--I will look forward to the creative opportunity it presents.
	Wednesday, June 18, 2008 at 17:47:41 mst Comment ID: #5 Name: Steve D'Ippolito I use an electric flyswatter to zap the @#!! miller moths we get here. Sometimes they really get a good zap and the smell of burnt moth is something else again. Add "Electrocuted miller moths" to the food log.
	Thursday, June 19, 2008 at 15:54:07 mst Comment ID: #6 Name: LB E-mail: EstiTiEsti(at)gmail.com URL: http://3-ring-binder.blogspot.com/2008/03/bs-is-its-middle-name.html While it is still a self-reporting questionnaire, the Youth Risk Behavior Surveillance Survey, designed by the CDC and administered in public schools, has included a weight and height measurement so that BMIs could be calculated since 2000. Don't worry - they accounted for the teens' tendency to lie by adding weight and removing inches from the reported answers.
	Friday, June 20, 2008 at 11:43:05 mst Comment ID: #7 Name: Valda Redfern E-mail: valda.redfern(at)gmail.com URL: http://valzhalla.blogspot.com I often threaten to cook my two tabbies. Why waste them? Every child should be fed cat casserole at least once a week.
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