Another person who was checked by the inspectors, psychiatrist and academic Gökben Hızlı Sayar, wrote on X: 'I got caught in a fat checkpoint in Üsküdar Square.
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30 sats \ 7 replies \ @Undisciplined 21h
There was a fat tax in Japan (at least statutorily) that involved employers measuring employees waists and paying a fine if they were too fat.
My grad school friend and I really wanted to do a project about fat taxes, but we were having a really hard time verifying if this program ever really went into effect.
Maybe one of our Japanese knowledgeable stackers can confirm or disconfirm it (cc: @cryotosensei, @Rothbardian_fanatic).
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26 sats \ 4 replies \ @Rothbardian_fanatic 19h
AFAIK, there was no fat tax in Japan while I was there. However, there may have been something after we left to repatriate. I have a hard time seeing it because public shaming was not a thing that was done. However, there is also social networking in Japan where you are faceless, anonymous and can say whatever you like with little repercussion, just like here, on Twatter and Facelessbook.
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44 sats \ 3 replies \ @Undisciplined 19h
That's interesting. I've only known a few Japanese people, so I didn't realize they wouldn't be blunt about others' weight. The other East Asian people I've known, Chinese and Korean, are very blunt about weight.
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47 sats \ 1 reply \ @cryotosensei 17h
I am not aware of any fat tax, either.
And I don’t think it wouldn’t have been very successful because the obesity rate in Japan is low - about 2.3% according to this source.
I do agree with @Rothbardian_fanatic about the two faces of Japanese people. In polite company, they would hew and haw and say things in such a roundabout manner that you have to be adept at reading the air before you realise that they are suggesting that someone is plus-sized. Actually, I think most people won’t even broach the topic.
Give them a couple of drinks though, and most people will share quite candidly their sex lives. I remember feeling so shocked the first time that happened to me.
That isn’t to say that public shaming isn’t done though. If I’m not wrong, female employees are still supposed to declare when they wish to get pregnant in some companies. Can’t have too many staff in one section taking maternity leave at the same time, can we? It’s quite a disgusting policy.
Oni means demon/monster 👿 in Japanese, and yes, my wife isn’t as sweet and cordial to me as she appears to others!!!
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32 sats \ 0 replies \ @Rothbardian_fanatic 17h
I am happy the hidden oni only appears under heavy stress at home. Other times the tenshi seems to be in residence. Stress avoidance is a very happy thing, right?!?
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42 sats \ 0 replies \ @Rothbardian_fanatic 18h
If you talk privately, they will be somewhat blunt. The public shaming is just not done, as far as I saw. They will talk privately about a whole lot of things, especially after a some sake or beer or two. Their public face and their private face can be totally different. There are sometimes hidden oni. Perhaps @cryotosensei would have more to add to this.
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22 sats \ 1 reply \ @SimpleStacker OP 20h
Maybe you can do that project now with data from Turkey
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0 sats \ 0 replies \ @Undisciplined 20h
Maybe so, but I doubt it's going to crack my current research queue and it definitely doesn't fit what he's doing now.
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30 sats \ 1 reply \ @rootmachine 20h
This one’s a bit wild. I get that tackling obesity is important, but public weigh-ins? That feels like it crossed a line. People's health journeys are truly personal — tying them to public shame or spectacle just seems like a fast track to embarrassment, not motivation. And the Balkan area is well known for shaming people for personal fights (obesity, divorced family, lack of children, etc.)
Curious what other measures they’re taking alongside this. Nutrition education? Better access to healthy food? Promoting exercise in schools or workplaces? Because if it's just public weigh-ins, it feels more like a stunt than a solution.
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0 sats \ 0 replies \ @Rothbardian_fanatic 19h
Islam, Islam! Compare that to wearing hijab and burka and the penalties in the strict Sharia places. They just don’t give a damn about excuses or any reasoning about what they are doing, in these respects.
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30 sats \ 2 replies \ @Signal312 21h
Seriously, there's a checkpoint in a public square in Turkey, and they force people to get on the scale, announce their weight, and tell them to lose weight?
I'm all for healthy living, but if that's true (I doubt it), it's insane.
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0 sats \ 0 replies \ @Rothbardian_fanatic 19h
I just wonder if they are applying the law to tourists or just collecting the jizyia.
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0 sats \ 0 replies \ @SimpleStacker OP 20h
If there were more fat checkpoints near me, it'd probably motivate me to lose more weight
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0 sats \ 0 replies \ @denlillaapan 19h
Imagine the traffic jam in every major city in America.
Gives "congestion pricing" a whole new meaning
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0 sats \ 0 replies \ @nitter 21h bot
https://xcancel.com/DailyMail/status/1925588396908466584
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