McMetabo

The new problem here in Japan, aside from "chikan" or "perverts" who harass women on the train system, is "metabo." There are articles every week in the local and international newspapers complaining about how the rate of "metabo" is increasing throughout Japan. (see article: http://news.scotsman.com/world/Metabo-tightens-belts-in-land.4186840.jp) The term "metabo" comes from the English word "metabolism." Japanese doctors measure "metabo" (and I know this because I was tested for it) by putting a special measuring tape around your waist and calculating your waste-to-height ratio. If your food-baby is too corpulent (like mine is) you are deemed "metabo" which I guess means that you are metabolically deficient or are eating more calories than your "metabo" can handle.

"Metabo" is the new buzz word, but the problem of obesity in Japan goes back decades. A few years ago, doctors and journalists noticed something alarming. Okinawa, Japan's southern-most prefecture, had the world's highest rate of people over 100-years-old but its youngsters were the fattest in all of Japan. (see article: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/health/main.jhtml?xml=/health/2006/09/04/wjapan04.xml) The finger was quickly pointed at the US army and naval bases that are all over that island. The bases sport large numbers of American fast food joints that lure local Japanese kids in for a belly bomb and some grease rockets after school and on the weekends. Although I agree that American-style fast food is bad for you, I noticed something at my local McDonald's that caused everything to be illuminated. Japan has an item on its McDonald's menu that the USA does not: the "Mega Maku," a Big Mac with twice the hamburger patties!

Japan's youth has been gorging itself silly with twice the fake meat of a normal Big Mac for....who knows how long. I predict that future nutritionists will look back at the advent of the "Mega Maku" in Japan as the beginning of the end for Japan's once-coveted status as the world's largest producer of healthy centenarians!