By MICHAEL HOFFMAN
Shukan Post
TOKYO May 9-16, 2008
"My waistline is none of my company's business!" fumes an employee in his 40s — who of course is wrong; his waistline is his company's business, and chances are, says Shukan Post, the company has a plan, program or regimen to drive the point sharply home. Last month company medical tests for metabo became mandatory, and "shape up or else" is the implicit message.
METABO. Three years ago those would have been meaningless syllables. Today every Japanese knows they stand for metabolic syndrome — in layman's terms, fat. Increasingly Westernized diets and lack of exercise have made the compact, wiry Japanese physique of yesteryear a dimming memory. It is the link between fat and disease that has the Health Ministry worried. The national health care system is financially strapped as it is. A swelling wave of "lifestyle" diseases would overwhelm it.Thus the company health checks, compulsory for all employees over age 39.
"I've been ordered to attend a nutritionist's seminar," grumbles the exasperated employee quoted above. To which Shukan Post rejoins: "That's just the beginning."
Yes indeed. Suddenly metabo is on the agenda of Japan's largest and most prestigious corporations. It's economics, not paternalism. The government, Shukan Post explains, has given your employer a sizable stake in your health. A company that by 2013 has failed to meet certain standards regarding efforts to reduce metabo among its staff will face higher payments to the new national health insurance for seniors over 74.
Some companies saw how the wind was blowing and got busy early. One such is the Tokyo-based marine-products firm Maruhanichiro. A year ago it got a brilliant idea: It would require its staff to eat at least one Maruhanichiro fish sausage a day. The sausage contains a substance known as DHA, said to be effective in reducing vascular fat.
"We don't have definitive data," says a company spokesperson, but preliminary tests "showed a small drop in vascular fat levels. . . . Some employees said they like the sausages so much they ate more than one a day."
"Their seriousness is admirable," comments Shukan Post. "Still, pardon us, but there's something a little laughable about this."
One person's laugh is another person's nightmare. All-Nippon Airways (ANA) has detected metabo in one-third — roughly 3,000 — of its male employees, of whom 100 especially severe cases have been marched into a "lifestyle reform program." This features gymnastic exercise and, under a nutritionist's guidance, diet-planning sessions — which employees are expected to attend with their wives.
"It's like being back in elementary school!" explodes one victim (or beneficiary, depending on point of view). "Being taken to school by my mother!"
The man is seething. "My wife loves this. She says to the nutritionist, 'Show me how to prepare meals that'll make my husband lose 10 kg.' Since then the bento (boxed lunches) she gives me are the size of the palm of my hand! Oh, for a pork cutlet!"
Osaka-based Matsushita Electric counts its employees' calories. At the company cafeteria you choose your fare, pay with a company credit card, and out pops your bill, showing, together with how much you've spent, how many calories and how much salt you're about to consume.
"Yesterday I had ramen, so today I'll have a light lunch," says an employee in his 30s. "This sort of balancing has become second nature to me. It's helped me lose 2 kg."
That's the benign view. A warier type might squirm under a feeling of being perpetually watched. Matshushita assures it does not check the calorie counts.
Sunstar Inc. in Takatsuki, Osaka Prefecture, runs a kind of metabo boot camp — two nights and three days of enlightenment, if you think of it that way: low-cal health food, hot and cold baths, and Zen meditation.
"No more! " exclaims an employee in his 30s. "I'm putting myself on a diet just so I won't have to go through this again next year!"
(C)The Japan Times
