Japan fighting obesity by penalizing employers for overweight employees

Japan has a new health-care initiative that involves measuring the waistlines of all company and government employees. Men with waistlines over 33.5 inches and women with waistlines over 35.5 inches are considered overweight and subject their employers to penalties and fines.

These new guidelines affect 44% of the Japanese population. The goal of this initiative is to reduce the overweight population of Japan by 10% over the next 4 years and 25% over the next 7 years.

I can see how reaction to these measures is split amongst people who feel that this is trampling their personal freedoms and those who applaud a course correction that will force employers to think about the physical activity and diets of their employees - a decision which impacts usage of the medical system, insurance, etc. From a pure economics standpoint, I’d prefer a system which rewards employers for advocating healthy-minded decisions as opposed to penalizing them for poor ones. For instance, offering well-balanced meals in the cafeteria should be applauded and promoted rather than penalizing the offering of burgers and fries, etc. Perhaps I’m too optimistic about behavior though. My concern with the Japan approach is that it could keep overweight people from getting jobs in the first place as employers may not want to hire somebody that they’ll be fined for.

[via Money Morning]