Japanese women getting thinner as American women become fatter
Blaine Harden of the Washington Post reports on how the average weight of Japanese women has been declining:
“I am quite fat, actually,” said Michie Takagi, a 70-year-old grandmother and retired clothing store executive. She has a body mass index (BMI) of 19.9, which is at the thin end of normal. While the average American woman has gained about 25 pounds over the past 30 years, Takagi has gained 4.5 pounds, typical for her age cohort in Japan, according to U.S. and Japanese government figures.
Skinnier still are Japanese women younger than 60, who were thin by international standards three decades ago and who, taken as a group, have since been steadily losing weight.
The trend is most pronounced among women in their 20s. A quarter-century ago, they were twice as likely to be thin as overweight; now they are four times more likely to be thin. For U.S. women of all ages, obesity rates have about doubled since 1980, rising from 17 percent to 35 percent.
Men and children, however, seem to be gaining weight. The trend among women is explained by social pressure and the media’s promotion of thinness as beauty. There still seems to be some questions about why Japanese women are so easily influenced by what they see in TV and magazines:
“In the United States, you see all these beautiful skinny people on television, and yet Americans keep getting fatter anyway,” said Sasaki, the public health expert at Tokyo University. “Why is that?”
[hat tip to Brian]
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No wonder the pedals get stuck in American Toyota cars!
No wonder the cars accelerate suddenly! There’s all that weight on the pedal that can’t be taken off in time for braking!
sorry…….
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You are like 15 right…
Wish to others what you want for yourself, would suit you fine.
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what about American men and Japanese men?
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Delicious US pork!
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wtf? very funny.
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Awesome, yoga boy, just awesome.
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America doesn’t shame the obese enough. http://www.theonion.com/content/video/in_the_know_should_we_be_shaming
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I love it. Those people are so going to hell LOL
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The Onion?!?! I hope you know thats a fictional news program…it’s for humor….not serious issues.
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NO IT’S NOT THE ONION IS REALZ!
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inzets lolcat
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You’re not good at inferring peoples meaning or intent are you? You must be a joy to watch in real life social situations.
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The relative cheapness of rich, unhealthy, processed foods when compared to whole, simple alternatives has a lot to do with the obesity problem in the U.S. My local Dollar General doesn’t even sell a single piece of fresh fruit or any fresh vegetables. Forget buying anything close to an onigiri or salad at any convenience stores here, too, or bottled/fountain drinks that don’t have some sort of sweetener in them. I also have a theory that perhaps preservatives and the subsequent phenomenon of only going to the grocery store once a month has totally ruined the whole food balance in our diets.
On a Japanese diet of rice and soups, sumo wrestlers have to overeat to the point where they can’t bear to consume anymore just to maintain their weight. Even Japanese girls who don’t obsess over their weight have little fear of packing on the pounds out of poverty, stress, and simple negligence, as long as they stick to the traditional menu.
Man, I’d kill to be able to walk down to the local convenience store for a bottle of jasmine tea right now.
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Where, in the U.S., might you be?
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i don’t know where the poster is, but i can tell you this is the case for just about any less affluent neighborhood in any large city in the USA, and there are more of those than one might think.
there are a lot of working poor here, and unfortunately the foods here that are affordable for them are heavily over-processed, high in sodium, and high in fat.
a lot of them do not have transportation to better grocery stores or markets that serve fresher, healthier foods.
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To answer your question, Anion, I live in the middle. Another great quirk about where I live: there are neither sidewalks nor shoulders on the road in 80% of my town, where half the vehicles on the road are giant pick-ups that hog the whole lane. Imagine my disappointment when I first moved here with my bicycle in tow, and I used to bike 80 minutes a day back and forth to work in Japan, too. Now that the warm season’s rolling around, I think I just might send a letter into my local government office about it.
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Sounds like where I live, only I’m in the northeast.
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Yeah, not to mention that culturally just about every guiding principal we have causes problems. We think big and never give in.
Why eat 16oz of food when you can get 32oz for only 2 dollars more!
Ever compare recommended serving sizes to the average meal you get in a US restaurant. 1 serving of meat is roughly the size of a deck of cards. Compare that to the Porterhouse Steak dinner at the local steakhouse.
And not only are we eating 3 times the recommended amount but we don’t like to have leftovers.
If you don’t eat it all the food wins; if our food can beat us the terrorists already won!
Supersized Triple Baconators, 2lb Hungryman TV dinners, Super Big Gulps that contain more High fructose Corn Syrup than 16 Hostess cupcakes. All while we sit on our couches living vicariously watching reality TV where people workout.
It’s not really a mystery why America has a weight problem.
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and just let me tell you, as a teacher in at a japanese uni – many of women, if not most, have eating disorders which translates into mental disorders.
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From the article:
james – it is so nice you picked out those few words from the article but i read in that same article that japanese women are too skinny for their own good. because of this the average birth weight for their babies is declining (this is not good), these women are at risk of death in the event of a serious illness (this, by the way, is really not good). that their average calorie intake is just 2/3 of what would be considered normal and on and on. they look at each other and themselves too critically – have misconceptions of what is means to be overweight (with a BMI of 19?!?!?!?). read the entire article. these things that i have mentioned are signs of an eating disorder – i know because i have one.
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You do not get it, it is a fashion here to be anti anything these days, and manipulate people, articles; having your own site helps.
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Oh, really? How is that no one ever mentions about Japanese and other Asian women that ingest “Tapeworms” in order to maintain their weight? This can be quite dangerous, not to mention gross.
I wouldn’t that thing inside me laying thousands of eggs inside me every day!
The US does have a serious problem with obesity, but on the other side, Japanese women are overly-obsessed with trying to stay slim. Every time I turn on the TV, I see some ad about how women can lose weight. As far as I’m concerned, they could eat a tad bit more, especially around the butt area!
But that’s just the “Sir-Mix-A-Lot” in me.
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,585224,00.html
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Carlos, it’s the same in the US. It’s all about working out staying slim. The difference is, in these poor communities that people talk about that exist in the U.S., they don’t have the glamourous food choices – all they have is junk and fast food.
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That is NOT entirely true. I come originally from California and we are probably the healthiest in the union. Our food is very diverse. We have more Vegan restaurants than anyone else, heavy, I repeat; HEAVY emphasis on eating everything organic. My parents own a restaurant and they only serve low-cal, naturally organic products. When we were kids, my parents always stressed how important proper nutrition is. My uncle was a 7 time Bodybuilding Champion so we always got lectured day in and day out about staying away from processed foods, port, soda, candy etc.
I think also its about education, moderation, control and basic food 101 common sense. As the old saying goes “you are what you eat”
influence is another factor. We often tend to group around people that have similar tastes as our own, so in my circle of friends, we always eat healthy for the most part. Eating junk and fast food is a choice!
I do crave once a week something greasy, but again; moderation is the key.
But my overall original point was is that on J-TV and in Japanese society in general, you have a large segment of the women population that think of themselves as fat when in actuality they are not. My wife is so skinny(and tall 170cm), she can jump through a Cheerio, yet, she always whines about being fat. So I do see a problem with women thinking that they are fat when they really aren’t. You got some junk in the trunk, you’re too fat. You got big breasts, too fat. Smoking is always OK, let’s do a pack a day, but I eat Natto and I am healthier than most western people! Think again!
All these TV commercials are also promising these women quick weight loss when all these products promise is temporary “water loss” after they get off the product they double their weight back. Most Japanese women don’t go to the gym for a variety of reasons(heard all the excuses)so does that mean if you are skinny you are exempt from working out??
These misconceptions have to be addressed. Diet alone will not help you to succeed.
Remember: education is the key and both sides need to learn this.
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Kids in your neighbourhood drank port?
Have you seen the difference in what is sold in Japan in terms of both quantity (a HUGE problem in the States) and quality there compared to the U.S.? This
http://s3.amazonaws.com/data.tumblr.com/tumblr_kw9qgxtkXn1qzvnxpo1_1280.png?AWSAccessKeyId=0RYTHV9YYQ4W5Q3HQMG2&Expires=1267999903&Signature=aXINxOJrGTjPgwTe%2FMqJ2i0Sn%2F0%3D
would be unthinkable in Japan.
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Carlos,
California!? You kidding? I was talking more about places like Tennessee, Kentucky, Oklahoma, that sorta thing. Lower-Middle America.
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There are several contributing factors to our obesity problem in America. But, I’d like to touch on one aspect in particular. It’s true that most places have several food options open to people. However, you need to look at the life of working-class lower income families. For people who have little money and many working hours, it makes sense to spend your few spare dollars on a calorie-heavy food. If all you could eat for the day was food costing you two dollars or less, would you get a small salad or a hamburger? For those same people working 40 hours or more each week, it can be difficult finding the time and energy to work-out. Particularly if they are also raising a family.
Our children are also being introduced to sugars, fats and high-caloried foods very young in our school systems. Considering how many of our kids eat the lunches provided at school, you would hope the lunches would be planned with nutrition in mind.
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haha, love that picture of American women
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Might want to point out that with the more developed public transportation, people are probably walking significantly more
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Hmmmmm…… extra large sized meals in the U.S. has lot more to do with it. Everything is big, remember? Not just fast foods like McD, etc, but just in general – ever been to an Italian restaurant in New Jersey? RIDICULOUS, I’m telling ya.
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And the grocery stuff has huge amounts of sugar, salt etc
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That is also true. America started to become the king of the fast food nation around the late 70’s early 80’s when people started to become more prosperous and working schedules became longer and people had less time to eat at home. Prior to that, Americans historically were not that big. When I see old family photos from my parents and grandparents, everyone was normal(by today’s standards we would call it skinny)even I remember when I was a kid, people were a lot smaller, but when I go back to the states, it seems like when you order a steak, they bring you the whole cow and many people will eat it in one sitting.
We need to go back to the old days where people cooked more at home and the portions were reasonably much smaller and healthier.
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Cooking takes way too much work. I do not want to spend time doing something as boring and time consuming as cooking.
This is not sarcasm.
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That’s a good point. I had trouble keeping muscle on my legs unless I was doing lots of sports when I lived in California. It’s not uncommon to see American men with massive bellies and toothpick legs (that I do or ever did look like that–my legs could never be described as being toothpick-like).
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That last comment was in reply to Derp’s one about public transportation.
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So, I just tried some frappuccino today….
All I can say is I wouldn’t recommend drinking much of that if you want to be healthy…I’ll stick to my tea.
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sorry but I’ll rather be the skinnier ladies than the huge ones…
at least they can move more easily and looks like they do regular exercises…
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It’s a plot by the US government in case it goes bankrupt, then they’ll have plenty of “soylent green” material on hand to feed the remaining rich people.
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“In the United States, you see all these beautiful skinny people on television, and yet Americans keep getting fatter anyway,” said Sasaki, the public health expert at Tokyo University. “Why is that?”
I guess the easiest explanation is that Americans are a lot more individualistic, so they probably can dissociate themselves a bit more from those “beautiful skinny people on television” a bit easier.
Japan, on the other hand, focuses so much on the community and their standards, and so much less on the individual, that Japanese women may feel more pressure.
But what do I know. Just a thought.
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The stupid is strong in this one.
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Thanks for the insightful comment.
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“I guess the easiest explanation is that Americans are a lot more individualistic, so they probably can dissociate themselves a bit more from those “beautiful skinny people on television” a bit easier.”
And they choose to be fat on individualism?
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No…the theory would be, they choose to eat what they want with less pressure to conform to the group.
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So they choose to eat excessively on individual decision in the knowledge that they would be fat like others in the group and as a result they are in conformity to the group?
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There’s no pressure because anyone is already fat.
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There is nothing good about being fat. It’s not some celebration of individualism.
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Again, this wouldn’t be a “celebration of individualism.”
Let me try to explain this in more detail:
Less Individualistic Person:
“If I eat this thing, I will stand out. Others will notice and judge me. I won’t fit in as well.”
More Individualistic Person:
“I don’t really care what others think about me. I’m going to eat this thing and enjoy myself, because my pleasure is more important than other people’s opinions about me.”
This is an extreme “thought” example. The real thoughts going through people’s heads would of course be varied and subtle. But, in aggregate, you could guess that it causes a difference in weight gain.
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Another slapshot explaination based on perceived national traits would be, that Americans are just too weak willed and not disciplined enough to stay/become slim, while Japanese Women still preserve that Samurai Spirit something that enabled them to bomb pearl harbor.
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Japanese just go and do everything that they see other people doing. There was a time when someone said they’d lost weight on a banana diet and for a while you couldn’t find bananas at the supermarket because people went and bought all the bananas.
I have some japanese girlfriends and when we eat meals together they eat quite less then I do. And they always worry about their weight and what they eat even though they are already quite skinny.
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It’s because they buy one small sized clothing and then they love it – and then that’s ALL they buy – so once they get a little bit fat and can’t wear the clothes, instead of just buying something a little bit larger, they instead just don’t eat for 2 to 3 days so that they get that bit thinner again so they can wear the size they want to wear! No, they don’t want to exercize or go for walks or whatever, they just QUIT eating! Amazing. They all want to be models, but what they also don’t realize is that models only eat celery sticks LOL
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No kidding, if the only clothing sizes available are M and L (which translate to US XS and US S) there’s no wonder why women in Japan feel the pressure to fit into what’s “normal” to them.
You do gotta wonder though; if your feet don’t fit into the S-M-L shoe sizes (US ladies 5.5-7.5), there’s really nothing you can to do change your shoe size…
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Agreed! Also it gives these crazy TV sponsors and marketers to come up with more schemes to push a lot of their silly products. “Eat a banana and you will lose weight, eat this jiggly jelly and you will lost weight.” 24 Hours of TV weight lose crap-designated for the already skinny women of this society to buy into the hype that they need to be skinnier.
Just like with these crazy cosmetic commercials false ads, these will fade too in obscurity one day hopefully.
But there is another side to this madness. While women in Japan are trying harder to look like a Communion wafer, kids in Japan(many of them)are putting on the pounds!
I am quite surprised to see what kids in this country eat for breakfast, hardly what I would call nutritious. Choco pan, donuts, white bread toast, curry, gross!
Japanese women on average have a much lower folic and fiber intake in their diets.
As I said before just because the Japanese on average eat better, doesn’t mean they have THE proper diet.
So
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Yes – remember the natto scandal?
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They worry about their weight when they are already skinny? That is probably why they are skinny moron. Fail.
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Why can’t there be a balance?!
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France is the place to go.
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I remember when I came to Japan almost twenty years ago people would come up to me for the first time and say directly “you’re quite fat”. Not nice to meet you? Or where are you from? It’s less common these days especially as I’ve lost about 40 pounds. In the U.S. I’d be considered fairly tall and moderately thin (6 ft. 190 pounds) but in Japan I’m still considered on the heavy side.
I’m from the S.F. bay area which is hardly representative of the U.S. as a whole but nonetheless obesity is much more common than in Japan.
I’m sure that one of the reasons that Americans are fatter and fatter is because the diet is absolutely more meat based and most commercial meats contain large amounts of hormones. If the purpose of a hormone is to fatten a chicken, pig, or cow, up in record time it only makes logical sense that residual amounts of hormones would fatten us up, too.
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Yup. Meat AND potatoes. Them french fries will kill you. And the cheese. And the Mayo.
In fact, it’s OK to eat hamburgers and sandwiches and salads all the time – just cut out the cheese, the mayo, the butter, and reduce the dressing. THAT’s all you need to do. In fact, people find that very difficult to do – because they are so used to the over-flavor of the cheese, mayo and the dressing, they think they’re not tasting anything if those things are not SLATHERED all over it.
And how often do you think people eat pizza in the US? Same thing. If you cut out the frequency – I mean I know people who eat pizza 3 to 4 times a week! And not just one slice, I mean 4 or 5 slices! So, eat pizza once a week, if not once every 2 weeks.
Etc etc……. the fat in cheese, mayo, butter and salad dressing are the worst culprits.
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I don’t know if you ever went to the doctor but according to your BMI (25.8), you’re overweight. And you said you were previously 40lbs more, making it 230lb? Well no wonder Japanese people were calling you fat, that’s obese.
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Fertility of women is linked to a healthy weight.
Perhaps this is another reason for Japan’s declining birth rate.
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Nah – we’ve got machines, that’s why.
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There are so many factors contributing to this trend in Japan and Korea as well. I think some are bad and some are good, but it is very difficult to justify the American trend towards obesity.
To answer Prof. Sasaki’s question, I think American women are impervious to social pressure because of the individualist rhetoric that has been widespread in America. My generation especially has been told that it is a sign of weakness to care about what other people think and we need to be “true to ourselves” and “independent”, although we’re never told what either of these mean. As a result, Americans are more confident even if they deviate from the norm, whereas Japanese tend to be more conformist out of fear of being the nail sticking out waiting to be hammered down.
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Is that why so many American women conform to be fat?
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Michael,
which generation? How old are you, if you don’t mind me asking? Because you’re right – all I hear from Americans mostly is “I don’t care where you come from” and “I don’t care what you think”
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I agree with this, and it seems like the first, most obvious explanation.
More individualism = less social pressure = less pressure to watch what you eat. It doesn’t seem controversial to me.
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Our parents generation were more individualist than our generation. How about eating bigger portions, eating worse foods, and exercising less? No girl is happy with being fat and ugly. But losing weight is hard to do.
Also it’s politically incorrect nowadays to criticize someone for being a fat lazy slob, so it’s become socially acceptable for women to be “plus sized.”
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Hey, no doubt. I don’t argue that individualism is the only cause. Certainly, all the things you say also seem correct.
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Of course I’d take a rather skinny girl over a huge fat western girl.
Too skinny is clearly bad, however, with japanese girls it’s a bit different. In generel south-east asian women are more petite and therefor it often happens that their BMI is lower than the rest of the world’s average.
When Aya Hirano or some other dumb celebrity however gets on TV and says “I’m totally fat”, that’s just plain retarded.
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>Of course I’d take a rather skinny girl over a huge fat western girl.
Since getting a skinny western girl is clearly aiming too high for most of you guys?
Yes, we do exist!!! I am one. I shop at the same clothing stores as Japanese girls and can comfortably fit into their clothes despite being taller than most of them. However, I am taken by a great Japanese guy, so I can’t say I would be interested in any of you hairy, sweaty white guys. (see how fun it is to generalize!) Seriously… what is with all the bitterness towards white girls? Got rejected too many times before you came to the land of easy girls or what?
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there’s a bitterness towards them because most of them are stuck up bitches. I am not saying you are. you could be the small percentage of non bitches. besides why should a guy have to work hard to find a white girl who’s not a stuck up bitch when he can get a nice Japanese girl?
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You shouldn’t generalize like that. There is good and bad in every group. There are a lot and I mean, a lot of stuck up Japanese women too!
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I agree with Carlos. I tend to generalize too unfortunately. Most of the immature white men I’ve come across shun their own race and go towards the demure, submissive flower that is a Japanese woman. It’s all in their mind though, and it roots to a deeper problem. The deeper problem being that these guys are too afraid of approaching a woman who can actually speak for themselves. I’m not saying that a Japanese woman is not, I am merely sharing my experience of why white men have gone after the Japanese woman for so long. They’ll of course take a white woman if they acted the same way. But it’s less time consuming to go after a female race that’s already been suppressed for thousands of years.
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Hirano Aya is the name you come up for as an example for celebrity?
I would like to respectfully remind you there’s more to Japan than anime and manga, and there’s more to the Western world than America…
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I believe this is because of the diets of each country.
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tonight’s nhk bangumi shows that just because you are overweight does not make you healthier than an average weight person. this is due to the buildup of internal fat (異所性脂肪 in Japanese) which is related to various diseases like diabetes, etc.
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Japan’s NHK is great. Very informative.
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insulin resistance can trigger a domino effect of gaining weight and not being able to get it off, specially in a society where sugar, high fructose/glucose, and carbohydrates are very hard to avoid. diet and exercise do affect obesity, but, it is twice as hard to lose visceral fat if you have a endocrine or hormone disease. additionally, you can have diabetes and be “underweight” by medical standards. it can go both ways. it can affect any culture. this has been proven.
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I guess it has little to do with “individualistic” culture on the American side and the “group oriented” Japanese mind.
In both “culture”, women are exposed to the idea that they should be thin (at least more than men)to be considered “beautiful” . Less so for the men in both culture. I guess in both nations, women are relatively more thin compared to there male counterpart.
But seriously, in America, the proportion of food for one person is seriously distorted. From my limited personal experience, the proportion of food that is sold in American restaurants, food shop and food court is incredibly huge.
I never had problems with american food when it comes to taste, but the proportion (and probably the combination) is a big problem.
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Fish and sea food over modified pork and chicken, and there is your answer.
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I don’t know which is more offensive, the photographs, the excerpt by that Sasaki fellow, or the comments here.
First off, the photo of the Japanese women looks of healthy weight. Most young Japanese women would call themselves fat being that size.
So many people think that it natural for Japanese women to be thin, however the trend for young women in Japan is to achieve BMIs of 17 or 16. I read many Japanese fashion magazines and there are always multiple articles in the back stressing weight loss through unhealthy techniques. Every couple months they feature their models (who already weight like 40 kg) loosing another 1.1 kg, another .8 kg etc Will they just disappear someday?
Frankly, as much as people like the appearance of what is considered thin enough today, being underweight is just as unhealthy as being obese and I support neither.
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it’s culturally relative.
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It’s simple really. Japanese women are the most beautiful in the world.
When you own a Rembrandt, you don’t want to cover it with lard.
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I thought beauty was subjective?
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Still, it’s very strange to compare those statistics with the food culture we have in Japan. Specially if you think what is the target public in those fancy restaurant in Ginza ou Omotesando, which basically young housewifes.
At same time you see skinny people on TV, you can see food all through the TV schedule. And every lifestyle magazine seen to have recipes and articles about gastronomy. My first impression when I arrived in Tokyo was “man, there are to many restaurant here”. In Japan you see food (culture) everywhere, but still women is getting skinnier. I wonder why.
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Happy to heard that!
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Yes..
American = pizza,debu
FYI,here are typical stereotype image of American in japan．
>
まあ、アメリカ人のバーベキューへの思い入れは凄まじいものがあるからな。
海外赴任中に取引先のデブに、ディナー奢ったお礼に誘われて、嫌々行ってみたんだが、
まず肉が凄い。キロ単位で塊で買ってくる。手土産に持ってった肉をみて「それじゃ足りないよ、
貧乏人」という顔をする。ｴｺﾉﾐｯｸアニマルはいつまでも肉食には慣れないらしい、みたいな。
絶対、その肉4キロより、俺が買ってきた肉500gの方が高い。っつうか、それほぼ脂身じゃねえか。
で、デブが肉を切る。やたら切る。不良風のデブ娘とデブ息子もこのときばかりは親父を尊敬。
普段、目もあわせないらしいガキがダディクールとか言ってる。郷ひろみか？ 畜生、氏ね。
鉄板も凄い、まず汚ねぇ。こげとかこびりついてる。 洗え。洗剤で洗え。つうか買い換えろ。
で、やたら焼く。焼いてデブ一家で食う。良い肉から食う。ゲストとかそんな概念一切ナシ。
ただただ、食う。デブが焼いて、デブがデブ家族に取り分ける。俺には回ってこない。畜生。
あらかた片付けた後、「どうした食ってないじゃないか？」などと、残った脂身を寄越す。畜生。
で、ﾃﾞﾌﾞ一家、5ｷﾛくらい肉を食った後に、みんなでﾀﾞｲｴｯﾄｺｰｸとｶﾛﾘｰｶｯﾄのビールを飲む。
「今日は僕も飲んじゃう」とかﾃﾞﾌﾞ息子が言う。おまえ、酒どころか絶対薬やってるだろ？
ﾃﾞﾌﾞ娘も「ああ、酔っちゃった、あなた素敵ね」とか言う。こっち見んな、殺すぞ。
デブ妻が「太っちゃったわね」とか言って、デブ夫が「ｶﾛﾘｰｾﾞﾛだから大丈夫さ」とか言う。
ｱﾒﾘｶﾝｼﾞｮｰｸの意味がわかんねえ。畜生、何がおかしいんだ、氏ね。
まあ、おまえら、アメリカ人にバーベキュー誘われたら、要注意ってこった。
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多分叩かれるけど、経験から言わせてもらうとそのコピペは大体あってるとしか言えん。皆って訳じゃないけど、デブはだいたいそんな感じ。サンクスギブンぐらいかな、料理するとこ見るのは・・・毎日まともな料理くってる白人家族なんて親がシェフの友達ぐらい、あとはインスタントや外食が多い。
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正に自分が想像する典型的なアメリカ人一家だな。さらにクレジッ
トカードを何枚も所有していて、多額のローンを組んで作ったプー
ルが家にあれば完璧だ。要注意どころか是非招待して欲しい。彼ら
の言動一つ一つが笑いを誘って楽しめそうだ。
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It’s because of the food, duh! And Japanese soda does not contain corn syrup in any form? American soda is like pure fat. reg sugar is better. Ugh wishi I could import sugar soda and drinks to Alaska xD.
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Is 果糖ぶどう糖液糖 ”regular sugar”?
“American soda is like pure fat” ? That’s the dumbest thing I’ve ever heard. Sugar is sugar dude. Same amount of carbohydrates and calories as HFCS. Both are unhealthy. How about drinking water instead of soda!!!
Oh p.s…. They DO sell cane sugar soda in stores in the U.S. !!
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Actually the body is kinda confused when fed HFCS. It doesn’t know what to do with it really so the signals to “stop eating” kinda goes on and off. Normal sugar does not do that.
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Some people have this notion that every thing that you eat in Japan is wholesome and safe, that is totally false! Japan is far from perfect.
Example, I prefer to buy strictly organic, especially in Japan. Ever go to the Supermarket and take a stroll through the produce aisle? All the apples, strawberries, Oranges, corn, carrots etc. are totally picture-perfect, same shape, size, not a blemish or scaring.
Fruit and Vegetables do NOT grow or look that perfect in real life.
So there are many foods in America that we should avoid and try not to eat because of basic overall health reasons, but what about the so-called foods that SHOULD be good for your body??
I rent about 15 meters of garden space and grow virtually all basic veggies and some fruit by myself, at least I know what is going into my body. People that that Japanese don’t use anything artificial whatsoever. I can assure you that none of the food is Kosher here and the people don’t ask, they just trust their local Supermarkets that the food they buy is guaranteed fresh.
What about the FDA? Do they come on a regular basis and do quality control checks on all the restaurants and food stalls?
I am just saying, if you want to criticize American eating habits(rightfully so)no problem, but to NOT closely analyze and scrutinize Japanese food and to take it face value is purely naive, ignorant and not to mention idiotic.
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A book I have read which really explains what’s wrong with American food product techniques, etc. is Food Rules by Michael Pollan. One of the rules he has is, “If it doesn’t eventually rot, don’t eat it.” We all really should move away from insanely highly-processed “foods” and return to a much more natural diet. It’s scary how much chemicals and hormones and whatnot is pumped into the things we eat.
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god they took my comment on here the reason why Japanese aren’t fat i because they don’t drink American corn syrup sodas that are pure fat add.
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“In the United States, you see all these beautiful skinny people on television, and yet Americans keep getting fatter anyway,” said Sasaki, the public health expert at Tokyo University. “Why is that?”
Oh, TV is different from reality! America is a lie! What a dumbass.
Why do you think? The only thing the media loves more than showing sexy people, is showing shocking imagery. Showing images of obese people “representing” America is shocking (and shameful) to most Americans, and gets people to read on (or keep watching) and leads to ad revenue.
Is it that difficult?
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That picture is so funny. I have no doubt that what you say is correct James “Showing images of obese people “representing” America is shocking”, but the comparison still stands.
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feminism and political correctness that make women fat and ugly
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I’ve been reading these comments and I just have to say that Carlos is a trip! “My wife is so thin she can jump through a Cheerio” LOLOLOL
Oh, and by the way, the BMI is inappropriate to be used as a measure of obesity. See:
NPR: “10 Reasons Why The BMI Is Bogus, Junk Science”
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Three reasons:
1)Japanese diet is rich in fish and vegetables.
2)Japanese culture places high premium on “thinness” in general.
3)Japanese are not deluged, and do not care for, over-processed foods — especially high-
fructose corn syrup sweeteners — more dangerous than heroin.
…Of course, American corporate culture has produced a nation of over-worked, underpaid,
brainwashed garbage-ingesting morons. And I say this as an American, and as one who
sees the world, especially the developing world, getting fatter by the hour, burger after
burger… China, for instance, has 200+ million officially fat people at this writing….
Enjoy Life,
Old Fat Guy
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