The Woman’s Owncolumnist has her say on obesity, biscuits and crushes
JAPAN HAVE GOT IT RIGHT
Their methods for tackling obesity may seem extreme but it’s working
How would you feel if you were legally obliged to do half an hour of physical exercise every morning whether you wanted to or not? Not by a personal trainer, but by the government? And to make sure you were sticking to the rules your employer had the right to measure your waist just to check you weren’t getting fat?
Sounds like mad science fiction from one of those movies set in a future hell where everyone has computer chips inserted into them, doesn’t it? Well, it’s not. It’s happening right now in a place many of us would consider a dream holiday destination. Japan. Land of the cherry blossom, Mount Fuji, sushi. And now, the Fat Police. Also, a land where only 4% of the population are obese.
In the UK it’s 25% of the population, with 38% of us being overweight. Facts that cost the country £98 billion and the NHS £6.5 billion. As a contributory factor to the two biggest killers – heart disease and cancer – it’s also pound for pound (very unfunny pun intended) the biggest killer any of us face. So maybe Japan is doing something right, after all?
To be honest I never knew just how draconian their anti-obesity measures were until I watched Channel 4’s fascinating programme Around the World in 80 Weighs. It features a group of obese Brits on a world tour discovering how other countries and cultures deal with the problem.
And their trip to Japan was gobsmacking. While we shy away from even using the word ‘fat’ in the UK for fear of being condemned for ‘fat shaming’, in Japan the overweight are treated like freaks. Those on the TV show were literally pointed out and laughed at in the streets. Gawped at like the long-ago mutants of Victorian circuses and sideshows.
Not just a few people either. Everyone from school kids to pensioners stopped in their tracks and stared. It was amazing telly but deeply upsetting for the show’s participants, all of whom are trying to lose weight. ‘I’m starting to feel a bit self-conscious, as we’re walking, everybody’s staring. They’re so open about being rude,’ Tiffany, 24, admitted. ‘Why would you point and laugh at another human being? It’s just cruel.’
While her friend Marisa, 31, added, ‘It just blows my mind that you’re not allowed to be who you are and you just have to fit in’.
Both young women are morbidly obese and admit they struggle t
