"Obesity costs U.S. companies more than $13 billion annually in medical fees and lost productivity and is associated with 39 million lost workdays, according to the National Business Group on Health."

I think based on this information and the ENORMOUS population of Japan that employers are well within their rights to check the waistlines of employees. To an extent anyway. However, if companies expect employees to maintain a "standard" they should also provide the means to achieve that (i.e. an office gym, a cafeteria that has healthy food, an incentive program to reward for good health), rather than simply threatening an overweight employee with being fired. It's also important to note that healthy weight loss takes quite a lot of time. If employers expect obese people to fit into their "healthy" weight class in a number of months they are going to end up with even less productivity because the working class will be EXHAUSTED. A situation like this has vast potential to get out of control and just as every person is unique and different so will be their limits of weight loss and what is considered healthy to them.

There's a lot wrong with this, US or otherwise.

First of all, I know some very thin people who have had heart problems, high blood pressure, cholesterol issues, thyroid problems, intestinal disorders, cancer, and about every other kind of problem you could imagine. I also know some fat people (myself included) whose lab tests are absolutely flawless and who are, beyond the occasional cold or display of klutziness resulting in an ER visit, perfectly healthy. My blood sugar, blood pressure and cholesterol numbers are almost identical to those of my size-4 best friend, if not lower.

I was talking to some random guy at the airport, and he said that his company based their health insurance premiums SOLELY on weight - and the guy thought it was crap, because he was pretty much healthy and he had thinner co-workers with all kinds of chronic, expensive diseases, but they were paying less in health insurance even though they were costing more money.

The number on the scale isn't an indicator of health. I think that, if they want to start charging people more who cost more, they should do complete physicals and med histories, and blank out the identifying details (height, weight, sex, age)....and base the cost on the actual treatments used and forseeably needed.

This is all just so...either/or. I dunno, it's frustrating. It's irrational...but it makes sense? All at the same time. Really though, who's to blame for this? Everyone is fat because everyone eats too much and everyone sits on their butt all day. I see this whole 'physical' thing in America and it makes sense because they are being checked for a wide variety of health issues. Just looking at the weight of the person just seems naive, a fad, almost, trying to look cool. It won't work.

What electropoptart said.

I could see a physical fitness test being used... and giving those who reached different levels of physical fitness discounts on health insurance premiums and gym memberships. And if someone is disabled, the test must be modified to involve a pool, a hand-pedaled bike, etc. so everyone could have a chance.

Waist measurements are a good indicator of health, but I've known some very big very strong people, so I don't know. And of course, it might be none of anyone's business, but I don't know.

Weird.

A few things on this issue -- 'metabo' stands for metabolic syndrome, an imaginary disease the Japanese have invented to explain weight loss in old age. Specifically this refers to people who have sedentary lives (ie: office workers) who eat very high fat diets (ie: fast food) and who are targets for heart conditions and diabetes.

There's no mention of loss of jobs. I think it would be fairly illegal to fire someone over this and damning for the city, but it could affect bonuses. Japanese companies usually have a kind of 'team spirit' point that gets asessed at your biyearly bonus and you certaintly would be docked if you didn't go with the team and try to get fit.

There's also a cultural thing about this. To Americans, weight is none of anyone's business and can be embarassing. Japanese people are more embarassed by the idea simply of being overweight, but are more than happy to talk on and on about it. Teasing people about their weight isn't considered so taboo and telling someone they're getting chubby is also rather normal. So I don't think this is considered the shocker here that it is in the rest of the world.
(uh, and no, there will be no gym membership assistance or anything like that)

Really, though, this is half assed like most Japanese health policies.

Junkfood Science has a discussion of this. The Japanese government has been looking for ways to shift the cost of health care to private companies and this is a way to do it. They fine companies who fail to meet predetermined goals, it's a tax masquerading as a health measure.

The idea that waist measurements could accurately determine health care costs is wildly speculative. In the U.S. the largest costs to most insurance pools is infertility treatments and I don't know if anyone would find it acceptable if their boss were to grill them about their reproduction plans.