Is this where we are headed? But 33 1/2 ” waistline or your fired, WOW!
To curtail Japan’s overweight population, the Japanese health ministry recently mandated that all waistlines among its 56 million workers over age 40 be below “regulation size†of 33.5 inches (for men). Any company failing to bring its employees’ weight under control–as well as the weights of their family members–will be fined up to 10% of its earnings by the government.
According to government officials, 27 million Japanese–about half of all adult workers–have health indices (cholesterol, blood pressure, blood sugar and BMI) that don’t meet ideal numbers, and will be targeted for mandatory medical intervention. The director of the Medical Urban Clinic in Osaka, Toshio Mochizuki, says he is concerned about the new movement. “I’m worried that the overweight will start to be shunned at the workplace and these new rules will make no one want to hire them,†he said. Read the full article here.
–AndreaLeigh