Is being overweight illegal in Japan? No, that's not true: There is a law to reduce the obesity rate, but it concerns companies rather than individuals.
The claim appeared in a video (archived here) where it was published by @gongmap on Tiktok, on March 17 2023, under the title "이게 왜 불법?" ("Why is this illegal?," translated by Lead Stories Staff). It opened:
Interesting illegal things in different countries - Japan: Being Overweight
This is what the post looked like on TikTok at the time of writing:
(Source: TikTok screenshot taken on Tue Jun 6 01:34:42 2023 UTC)
The video also claimed that employees would be fined if they are older than 40 years and suffer from abdominal obesity.
In fact, Japan passed the "Metabo Law" in 2008, which is named after the metabolic syndrome. Metabo Law obliges companies to control the obesity rate of their staff. Local governments are also obliged to control the rate, mainly for self-employed workers or small business members. If the institutions fail to meet the defined obesity rate, they can face financial penalties. However, obese individuals are not fined or imprisoned.
The law was part of the anti-obesity movement back in the 2000s when metabolic syndrome was a serious health issue in society. It is unclear if the law is enforced in everyday life.
