I'm worried that the overweight will be shunned in the workplace and these new rules will make no one want to hire them.

Monday 24th March, 07:42 AM JST

Toshio Mochizuki, director of the Medical Urban Clinic in Osaka and author of “I’m Metabo, So What?” In a bid to curb spiraling medical costs due to obesity and related diseases, the government will require companies to cut the number of overweight workers (men with a waistline larger than 85 cm) by 20% by 2015. Failure to do so will result in a surcharge on contributions to a fund for elderly care. (Bloomberg)

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romulus3 at 01:39 PM JST - 25th March

taka,

and if you dont pay, you leave with nothiing...
greenteaonsens at 01:47 PM JST - 25th March

japanese bureaucrats are so intelligent. this is a great story...
sukebeoyagi at 03:53 PM JST - 25th March

I think it's only fair really, no one likes to see that in the work place, well do they?
kagunlapell at 04:58 PM JST - 25th March

I guess it'll be, as usual, exact 85cm. 84.999cm will be acceptable, but 85.001cm will mean obesity! hahaha!! funny! Nobody will claim about discrimination based on one single anthropometric measure? What about measuring IQ to become a politician? I guess that being just under 90% would suffice, and never asked to reach normality!
the_sicilian at 06:57 PM JST - 25th March

Taka,

I'm in. I'll form the Okinawa branch. All I have to do is feed these "obese" otaku's is goya...It's so bitter, they won't want to eat at all...And I'll round up some blond haired big busted "gaijin" (I can't single out certain nationalities), and charge a whopping (no pun intended) amount for their "service...Sure fire money maker..

Or we can just open a Hooters here.....

ciao
cleo at 07:14 PM JST - 25th March

" goya...It’s so bitter, they won’t want to eat at all" Oh sicilian, thou knowest not of wot thou speakest. I love goya. Specifically, goya chips - washed in salt to get the worst of the bitterness out, dipped in spiced flour and deep-fried. A hellish amount of calories, 'specially since it's best washed down with Scotch.
bushlover at 12:21 PM JST - 26th March

Save our offices, harpoon fat *: Save our beaches, harpoon fat ****. This is a very good idea to curb obesity. It was either that or a cull.
dantium at 01:22 PM JST - 26th March

There should be greater tax for obese people and they should pay more for public transport, it makes sense...
Ah_so at 01:54 AM JST - 27th March

In imperial, that equates to less than 34 inch waste. Unless you are a giant in Japan, that certainly makes you a little overweight, but hardly obese.

Note that Lennox Lewis, the former world boxing champion, fought with a 34in waist and is over 6'5ft tall (195cm), which I understand is pretty typical.
openyoureyes at 05:01 AM JST - 27th March

You ask, 'why only men?'

Society has been holding women to these rules for years. It's not news.

You can't be a proper 'office flower' with a waistline over 85 cm, can you?
umbrella at 08:06 AM JST - 27th March

As if the japanese government cared about the health of the nation's workers! They just allow the slaves, err I mean workers to be worked to death without overtime pay and then pretend to be concerned about the slaves' health. Just a big joke. You have to look after yourself. Only work sensible hours and above all exercise everyday.
ca1ic0cat at 04:10 AM JST - 28th March

An office flower with a 33.5 inch waist line? That sounds like the wrong dimension. What they should really do is outlaw high heal shoes.

Of course this is the typical bureaucratic loonacy, like mandating that the value of pi should be 3 because it's easier to divide with.

I haven't had a 30 inch waistline (76.2cm, that is) since high school. Unfortunately I still have a 30 inch inseam!

Go figure.

I do agree with cleo that everything is best with Scotch whisky.
umbrella at 08:29 AM JST - 28th March

What's so magical about 85 cm anyway?? Why not 83cm or 87cm?? It's all just nonsense. Long hours, stress for the huge number of contract workers and smoking are the IMPORTANT health issues. But of course the government doesn't dare tackle these issues.
stormcrow at 09:04 PM JST - 30th March

It's an idea which makes sense. However, as umbrella above points out, how and why should the focus be on one particular measurement or for that matter the issues of stress, over smoking and over drinking. It's very possible that there are some over weight people who are not smoking and/or drinking heavily in better health than average weight people who are heavy smokers and/or drinkers. Guidelines need to be established all up and down the line regarding how we look and behave. On the other hand, dare I say it, wouldn't such a state of perfection begin to look like something out of Huxley's book "Brave New World" at that point?
knucklerap at 02:39 AM JST - 24th May

this would discriminate against tall people