Photo by mick62/Flickr CC
They called him Mr. Jumbo.
I was teaching English at a high school in Hiroshima, Japan, in 2001, when a group of boys approached to introduce me to a classmate.
"His name is Jumbo-san--Mr. Jumbo!" the boys said, laughing.
"Why do you call him that?" I asked. "Because he's big-sized," one boy replied, curling his arms out from his waist and wobbling around in an imitation.
A smiling boy stepped forward. He was about 5 feet 8, maybe 175 pounds. Hardly jumbo. I was a couple inches taller and more than 10 pounds heavier than he was. "You're not that big," I told Mr. Jumbo. "In America, you wouldn't even make the football team."
In Japan, being fat remains noteworthy, something that makes you stand out in a shameful way in a conformist society. Even now, despite government statistics and anecdotal evidence that Japanese people are getting heavier, I can go days without seeing a single fat person in Tokyo.
Regardless of how one feels about legislating waistlines, living in Japan for an American is a wakeup call when it comes to body image and eating discipline.As I write today in Globalpost, the Japanese government is not content that the country is among the slimmest in the world. Last year, lawmakers established a national limit on waistlines for people 40 and older: 33.5 inches for men and 35.4 inches for women. The program, which aims to cut down on metabolic syndrome, a leading indicator for heart disease and diabetes, has been controversial and critics say it misses the mark scientifically.
Regardless of how one feels about legislating waistlines, living in Japan for an American is a wakeup call when it comes to body image and eating discipline. In the same way that living in Hiroshima after 9/11 provided me a different perspective about American military power, so did it teach me a valuable lesson in the way the Japanese saw America's obesity epidemic.
As with most things in Japan, the lessons were delivered indirectly, with the exception of the occasional student poking my stomach and saying, "American size!" Compared to their American counterparts, the Japanese snack less often between meals, walk more when commuting to work and, most important, eat meals of far smaller proportions. (They also smoke more, which is an appetite suppressant and remains a health concern far more worrisome here than creeping weight gain.)
Living in Hiroshima, I lost 15 pounds in three months. I wasn't even trying to lose weight. I had arrived in Hiroshima, at 31 years old, at my heaviest--195 pounds--but I felt I had been eating non-stop in Japan. The portion size was just so much smaller than I was used to in the United States.
My habits improved, too. I biked around town, played soccer with the students, and walked up and down four flights both at school and my apartment complex. I still remember putting on my belt one day and finding I had to hook it three holes smaller than before.
A lot has been written recently about studies suggesting that your peer group strongly influences your weight. If your friends are fat, then you likely will be, too. The opposite also seems true; in Japan, peer pressure is enormous and staying thin is taken as a given.
I am back in Japan, living in Tokyo for a year, and one of my Japanese co-worker recently stopped joining the other men for lunch at restaurants; instead, he began bringing a small bento box. When I asked why, he said his wife believed he was getting fat and required him to eat her pre-approved portions.
Not surprisingly, there are unintended consequences. Eating disorders are prevalent, especially among young women. When Ralph Lauren was criticized by the U.S. media after digitally altering an image of already-slender supermodel Filippa Hamilton to make her appear even skinnier, I was not surprised that a company executive said the advertisement had only appeared in Japan.
When I returned to Washington in 2002 after my year in Hiroshima, I sold my car and biked around town, ran on the treadmill and continued to play soccer. But still, my weight slowly increased over the years. Back in Japan for the past six months, I have again lost about 7 or 8 pounds. When I see overweight Westerners on the streets or in restaurants here, I become embarrassed and angry; so many seem to have given up on staying fit.
It is hard work--believe me, I know. At 39, I would be required next year to have my stomach measured under Japan's waistline law. And, though I recently ran a 10-kilometer race in 47 minutes, I would fail the exam: At 5-feet-10 and about 180 pounds, I wear a 35-inch pant--1 1/2 inches bigger than the government-mandated waistline limit for men.
Call me Mr. Jumbo.
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The US is a country of lazy overweight people, who drive huge gas guzzling vehicles.
A glance at a grocery store parking lot, and the store carts laying around, without being returned to their stables is evidence of this fact.
How is one to lose weight under these circumstances?
Before you are so harsh I would like to share with you that I have lost over 25lbs over the last six months and have been able to keep it off. I really studied what I ate and keep really good records every day of my gain and losses and notice a lot of strange things happening as I tried different foods that I just could not understand until I stumbled upon this educational video from UCA. It totally changed my life and now I understand everything that has happened to my weight over the last six months. It is now very easy for me to loose weight, once you know the truth about the food industry in the US.
Google these words: Robert Lustig Bitter Truth
Yes, it's also a nation full of people who work out, train hard, and are in great health. This is a large, complicated nation. Let's compare this to India, which is where I'm guessing you're from with your name. It's a nation filled with cholera-stricken beggars who only hope to get jobs speaking poorly accented english to irate American consumers on support calls.
There, see how fun stereotyping is?
Thanks Jon. I am from India as well and far from taking umbrage at your comments, I think you hit the nail right on the head. All of us have a natural tendency to confuse valid statistics (obesity in America and poverty and tropical diseases in India) with national (and personal) characteristics - particularly when the statistics reflect something of concern. Real insights and solutions come only from a capacity to look beyond these stereotypes.
Not all Americans are fat and gluttonous. I live in a city in California and I find that most of my coworkers are very fit and eco-conscious. I work in an office building with 5000 employees. We store over 1200 bikes a day for those that bike to work, they have a special garage for bikes. Many of my friends take the train to work. I see large people occasionally and most of them are economically disadvantaged (ie, i see them in walmart), and I find that the obese beget the obese and the thin beget other thin people.
The same phenomenon happened to me, a white American, after living in China for a few years and returned to the US. Upon my return, I could not believe how fat Americans were. While in China, I lost 20 pounds (from 160 to 140 -- I'm 5'9''). I finally understood why the Chinese called me fat when they first saw me.
Manish Kurup,
What a useful extreme generalization about an entire nation, thank you.
Considering that more than 60% of the U.S. population is overweight/obese, I'd say Manish has a point. Laze is partly to blame, but overwhelmingly, it's because of the poor quality of food we eat. Even trying to eat healthy, the food just isn't as nutritious as it once was. Portion sizes are out of control here - it's not uncommon to go to an Italian restaurant and be served 1/2 pound of pasta or more, in addition to the 1/2 pound meatballs (which the restaurant brags about) or the giant sausages. Nobody needs to be eating a pound and a half of food (often upwards of 1500-2000 calories) at dinner time, 4-6 hours before going to bed.
It's not easy to keep one's weight under control here, but it's doable. Exercise works, and simply refusing to eat those giant portions will do wonders for the waistline. Returning those shopping carts to their designated spot instead of leaving it by your car helps too ;)
Manish isn't exactly on-target about the cars though - we're starting to trend away from SUVs and into smaller, more fuel-efficient vehicles (thankfully).
:) OK I'll admit I was a little harsh on my fellow overweight countrymen.
And Daniel's hit the nail on the head - it's so difficult (or very expensive) to find good nutritious food around here these days. One would either have to cook everything from fresh ingredients, or buy organic (which Im sure is a scam in some form or another), or a combination.
Stress, Lack of Exercise and processed foods continue to be the bane of our generation - and the next. I worry about when my kids are served the same processed foods at lunch in their schools simply because they're cheaper - it's all about saving costs see? This is, incidentally, also the reason that some cholera stricken beggar from my home country India, Jon, is on the phone trying to solve your problems, and irritating you with his/her poorly accented English (how can you call that language you speak English?) in the process ;).
Things are changing in India too - we're trying to keep abreast with the same poor eating and exercising habits that have plagued this country, and trying to lead a high-stress lifestyle, so soon I guess I can soon say the same thing about my country too, if that's any consolation ;)!
:) But returning those carts to their stables would be a good start too, thank you Daniel!
"Manish isn't exactly on-target about the cars though - we're starting to trend away from SUVs and into smaller, more fuel-efficient vehicles (thankfully)."
What passes for "smaller, more fuel-efficient vehicles" in the US still qualifies as "huge gas guzzling vehicles" in India. Take a look at Tata Motors' product line sometime.
As may be... Even if our cars are more efficient, we still use them far too often. That's mostly because we've allowed our cities to be developed in such a crazy way. We don't really have an energy problem, or an obesity problem -- we have a land use problem, and those are effects of much of it. If we'd build properly dense, multi-use cities instead of square mile upon square mile of single-use residential, things would be a lot better. And, to anticipate -- no, our current building pattern doesn't reflect what Americans want. At least, not if one assumes that price indicates demand. The most expensive real estate in this country per square foot is exactly in such dense, multi-use downtowns. Suburbia has to be deeply discounted by comparison to get anyone to be willing to live there.
Hal - THANK YOU for saying this, you have hit the nail right on the head!
I am a former architecture student/architect in training and part of what attracted me to my field was the experience of growing up in rural Florida... WITHOUT A CAR. (I've since moved to New York City where our rent is nearly 2x my dad's mortgage and WORTH EVERY PENNY.) in Florida we had plenty obesity (among the elderly.. forget it) but the beaches put some vanity-based pressure on younger people. I suppose statistically Florida were better off than the rest of the U.S. I was skinny bc i couldn't afford a car and walked everywhere.. miles and miles and miles and not much was available to me (which is why I left). Cars are both unhealthy for health, environment and an undue economic burden that segregates the population into those who CAN use their built environment and those who CAN'T.
People look at me like I'm crazy when I bring everything back to land use but it is SERIOUSLY the principle issue. Though I voted for Obama, I'm disappointed that he's never brought this up once that I know of, for all the talk of green collar jobs.
I don't know if you've read "The Geography of Nowhere" by James Howard Kunstler but Kunstler hits the nail right on the head in a way that is engaging and at times quite humorous. I resonated w/it growing up where the only downtown really were simulation downtowns, like Main Street USA, Universal Studios CityWalk and Disney's Pleasure Island... which all are workable b/c Disney asks that you leave the cars at the gate. Our "normal" built environment was so hostile (pod-like suburbs which were an impossible distance away from strip malls, everything islanded in parking lot, etc.) that even just removing people from this makes them joyful.
Another eye opener was "Fat Land" which was my primer on agri-business, the link between obesity & poverty, the rise of HFCS (high fructose corn syrup) etc.
The addiction to the automobile and the refusal which I'm sure will happen of any proposition to limit waistlines legislatively even once we do socialize medicine will be indicative of our paranoia about preserving our "freedom". So will any policy seriously amending land use for walkable towns and cities or reawakening old (but functional) city planning traditions. I imagine the left would see this as fascist and the right would see it as communist.. Because the only thing we are more than fat is CRAZY :P
I probably sound like some kind of north-eastern elitist or whatever... NYC zoning is great and our land use has resulted in a city which the avg. resident uses 1/3 the energy and is a good deal fitter... HOWEVER... it's a work in progress, b/c our land prices, rent, etc. are so high that believe it or not grocery stores are scarce b/c they DONT MAKE ENOUGH MONEY (?!?) require a lot of floor area and rent is high and large parcels of land are scarce and NYC has its share of NIMBY refuseniks which will torpedo a grocery for fear of seeing a parking lot. We have spot-obesity epidemics of neighborhoods which are poor or emerging, have limited access to parks, and no grocery stores. Which means no fresh food, and families doing their shopping at marked-up bodegas (or uh "mom and pop stores" :P) for junk food or there's always ubiquitous "takeout" much of it unhealthy. Bloomberg is aware of this dilemma and working on it but for the time being we do remain in better shape than most of my American countrymen thanks to walkability of the environment and mass trans.
I think our next step should be Vertical Farming:
http://www.verticalfarm.com/
I also lived in Japan for a year. Despite my best efforts, I dropped from 165 to an unhealthy 145 pounds over the course of that year, and I'm 5 feet 11. Although the slimness of the Japanese is commendable, their diet doesn't work for everyone.
It took a 2-month volunteering stint in India eating the rich, delicious cuisine there to bring me back up to weight and feeling healthy again.
On that point, Manish, it wasn't my experience that middle- and upper-class Indians were exactly paragons of healthy eating.
What is the punishment in Japan for exceeding the limit?
rgpdconnected --
The "punishment" is that employees must undergo counseling by their employers, who set up diet and exercise plans. If the companies do not decrease the percent of overweight employees by 2012 and 2015, they will get fined and have to pay more into a health care plan for the elderly. for more details, please click on the link to my news story about this topic in Globalpost, which is linked in the text in the above essay.
Thanks for reading and commenting,
David Nakamura
David. I know you are well intentioned and want to make a gee whiz point, but as soon as you turn your back, some nut job will jump on here and do one of the following:
1. Call Japan a fascist state.
2. Tie this health guidance into universal health care and start whacking someone over the head with death panels.
3. Say that it is not a good idea for companies to be forced to discriminate against employees..
yadda yadda and iya da.
I have some points to add about the policy, my experiences, and a perspective on health policy.
I have lived in Japan much much longer than you have, during which time I have eaten pretty much as a Japanese person would. I have been, while in Japan, both the heaviest and lightest person I have ever been in my adult life.
In point of fact, there is no punishment meted out to fatties or companies with fatties. It is probably best not to overplay it. I know of nobody who has received counseling, medication, time off, or diet and exercise plans. The guidelines were announced, people began to be measured. The program is already years old. Everyone went through the motions of this program. However, the results of health examinations are not the property of the company or the government. Given Japan's economy, it is unlikely that anyone will be forced to pay more into health care plans for this reason, and it is unlikely that any employee will be bullied or harrassed about a weight problem. Moreover, the punishments stand almost no chance of being applied to sole proprietorships or small and medium sized companies.
In fact, emphasizing the "punishment" misses the obvious. People are aware of the problem and are doing something about it. People receive annual checkups for free if they are employed or attending school. They can get checkups on their own for a very low cost if they want, maybe 30 dollars. By giving doctors the authority to wag fingers and order the dreaded "DOCTOR STOP" to a compulsive overeater, Japan is nipping the scourge in the bud. Drugs, stigmatization, punishment, interventions, programs, plans, etc. are, to put it bluntly, ideas that seem to appeal to Americans, but they do not appear to be effective there or anywhere else for that matter. In contrast, Japan is raising consciousness of the problem, as it does for public efforts at stopping smoking, sorting garbage, curbing dogs, and thwarting crime. It works time and again!
I know that McDonald's might be an advertiser of the Atlantic, but I can say what you will not. Quarterpounders and BigMacs with four patties are being sold increasingly in Japan, as you probably know. They were not sold perhaps three years ago, and certainly not five years ago. Gluttony is the budding scourge that is getting nipped. Fast food companies want people to consume until they need a quadruple bypass. A public effort is under way to give people reasons to resist. It is working.
It was also announced this week that smoking rates among Japanese men are down to 38%, which is admittedly high, but you cast that as a huge health problem. In fact, a smaller fraction of the male population smokes today than at any time since data have been gathered (1945?).
To conclude, what you should say about Japan, which already has an excellent health care system, is that it is taking concrete, reasonable steps to improve national health as people get older. The US should try setting some simple goals and sticking to them as well.
Could you please provide a link to the original japanese source? I have been working for a japanese company in Tokyo for 3 years now, and have never heard of anyone being harrassed or punished for being too fat.
In fact, I see the compulsive (free!) health check as a very good thing, I wish they would let me take it earlier!
By the way, I have gained several pounds since I moved over here. Not enough to be troubling (went from about 72 to 76kg while losing a bit of muscle mass), but I'm still working on training them off again.
Sunflower and Phil Knall -- thanks very much for your thoughtful comments. i do appreciate them. to try to address your comments...
@Sunflower -- I hope you also have read my full news-enterprise story on this Japanese government initiative at globalpost.com. In that story, I attempt to illustrate both sides of the matter and let readers decide. ... As for fast food, as this essay says, I lived in Hiroshima in 2001-2002. Almost a decade ago. There were plenty of McDonalds, Mos Burgers and other fast food places all over that city and most in Japan back then. In fact, I lived in an apartment in a suburb called Midorii in Asakita, 20 minutes north of Hiroshima -- and my apartment was directly above a Mos Burger shop (as well as a USA Hair salon -- I sampled both, but neither really captured my liking). Yes, some evidence suggests Japanese are getting bigger, but not particularly so -- 10 percent in three decades for men, 6 percent for women. And a leading researcher in my globalpost piece argues that average caloric intake has decreased here in the past decade...
@Phil Knall -- I will refrain from linking to the Japan Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare Web site, whose pertinent information is in Kanji characters. So perhaps this British Embassy report will help: http://ukinjapan.fco.gov.uk/resources/en/pdf/5606907/5610028/metabolic_syndrome.pdf .. Also, just so you know, I am based in tokyo at a very, very large business trade group where several employees -- representing several of the biggest companies in Japan -- were preparing for their annual health exams. they showed me several charts, handouts, instructions, etc.. to prepare them for the metabo exam. And they were all happy to discuss the matter with me.
Thanks again for your comments which add to this worthwhile discussion.
Sincerely,
David Nakamura
Fast food here has gone from the BigMac (2/10 pounds of "beef") to the MegaMac, with twice the beef (4/10 lb.) and cheese and mayonnaise, 1.5 times the bun, and the usual lettuce and pickle. It became a big "hit." Quarter pounders have become a standard menu item nationwide just in the last year or so. MOS, although they vary their menu once a month it seems, has gone to six and eight dollar burgers. You seem to emphasize that fast food exists, as in "There were plenty of McDonalds, Mos Burgers and other fast food places all over that city and most in Japan back then." That is not the point at all. McDonalds has been hugely successful here for 30 years and more. My point of emphasis is that the menu is now morphing into a SUPERSIZE ME nightmare... a firehose of ground cow. Combined with increasingly sedentary lifestyles, muscle is disappearing and waistlines are expanding. The waist measurements are designed to detect conditions of cardiac problems, fatty liver, and DM...metabo.
Your place in Hiroshima sounds nice. You were lucky to be there. Hiroshima is one of the nicest cities in Japan, I think.
Other comments you made speak to my point about this policy not being overly exciting to most Japanese people: "I am based in tokyo at a very, very large business trade group where several employees -- representing several of the biggest companies in Japan." You lost me at "I am based in Tokyo." Just as Washington Post reporters can beoome trapped within the beltway, foreigners become captured by Tokyo's Yamanote sen. You probably learned more about Japan at your school teaching English than you will reading pamphlets at Mitsui, Marubeni, or wherever.
If there is some service you can do as a CFR Fellow, it might be this: Emphasize to American people that this is an inexpensive national effort that has now been institutionalized through the national healthcare system. It will be effective, but NOT because of its penalties, incentives, stigma, or death panels. Emphasize to people that controlling the world is not the goal---it is controlling ourselves. It is a lesson that is certainly not taught at the Kennedy School, but it should be.
I will read the other materials you have pointed me to. Thanks and good luck to you.
Hmmm, I am in the exact same area as you were in Hiroshima working as an English teacher at a high school. I work at a high academic school and a low academic school. In my experience the size of the students at each school is really different. At the high academic school all the students are rather slight and small but seem more healthy and energetic than their lower academic counterparts. At the lower academic school a lot of the kids are heavy or sickly thin. I have few female students where the thickest part of their leg is their knee joint. Some of the boys weigh as much as me but are much shorter. I'm 191cm and about 120kg. I'm not sure about the weight because all the schools' scales only go up to 100kg.
Though I do think things have changed a bit around here. I see the students snacking all the time. If you go to the foodcourt in your old stomping grounds of Midori you'll see all of the Japanese are going to McDonalds and Mister Donut while the takoyaki, don, bibimba, and curry shop attendants stand around with nothing to do.
Also, Midori is part of Asaminami now.
Big Joe --
Thanks for the informative update from on the ground in the Peace City. I have fond memories of the place, despite some tough days with the students. I find your comments fascinating about the size differences among the more ambitious students and their less ambitious counterparts -- that could suggest that, like in the States, obesity is linked to poverty. Many English teachers I talk to have provided anecdotal evidence that students are getting bigger. Yet one thing I notice, at least in Tokyo, is that the so-called "rookie" employees -- the just-graduated kids entering the workforce at 22 years old (immediately identifiable by their slim-cut black, standard-issue business suits) -- routinely look trim and fashionable. This is a limited sample group, of course, and that blue-collar workers are heavier or something. Or it is possible that students slim down in college, as they look for mates and date more seriously.
All worth exploring further.
David Nakamura
Hi from Rome, Italy,
From the usa, I have lived in Europe and Africa now for 8 yrs. In 8 yrs i see a constant uptick, almost yr by yr, in people here in europe who are overwt. (countries known first hand are italy, spain, germany, czech repub., and kenya)
Key facts are the following:
--for the first time in the history of our world, there are now more obese people than there are people who go routinely hungry (about 1.2 billion obese, about 800 daily hungry).
--the most obese nation in the world (per capita) is the usa.
--second most obese is mexico
--european data figures are in accord with my non scientfic first hand appraisals, obesity on the rise in europe indeed, brit scientists predict that by 2050 more brits will be obese than non-obese.
--in kenya, for middle to upper class, of which there are few for most people are very poor and some are extremely riche, it is a badge of prestige or status to be overwt.--as though look see i dont have to worry about food, am above that, and am akin to the fat people on TV we see all the time from usa shows that play on kenya tv channels. it is a weird sort of copying westerners, even their bad habits.
Solutions are unknown to me. A possible part of a solution is following japenese ways some, they seem to work there. if the japanese have a food/diet/life style way and some info taht works, i say let's use them, at least to an extent.
for if we in the usa think we don't neeed help re overwtness, we are wrong. in my non-scientific opinion, overweightness is a huge health hazard and can bring on all sorts of various mental and physicial probs.
there's a moral component to the issue too. can we really live in a world where 100s of thousands are starving, and (more) 100s of thousands are obese. do we really want that world.
paul solon
I'm 6'5" which is admittedly far outside the normal range for Japan, but not an impossible height. A 33.5" waist would be a very different goal for someone my height than for the 5'3" man mentioned in the article. A flat maximum, rather than a sliding scale by height, won't do anything to promote healthiness.
I have a 38" waist now and I'm not overweight, though I could stand to convert some of the weight I have to muscle, and I can't even imagine what it would take to lost 5 inches.