Fancy some serology? (3) In Japan

I notice that the COVID-19 state of emergency has been lifted in the last remaining areas of Japan as of last Monday.

I think they lost about 800 people in the pandemic. The seroprevalence in Tokyo is at least 6% in the populace attending a community clinic or two and at least 10% in healthcare workers. Exposure has widespread.

All countries have had their individual approaches to managing the pandemic, some sensible, others less so. What worked and what didn't will probably be lost in the avalanche of lies used to cover the arses of incompetent politicians, certainly here in the UK.

I found this ancient (2014) snippet by accident somewhere on t'internet:

"But one country has managed to keep obesity down with the help of a controversial government policy that probably wouldn't fly in the U.S. That country is Japan, where only about 3.5% of the population is classified as obese, compared to rates as high as 30% or greater in countries like the U.S. And it's not just a generally healthier diet and lifestyle that's kept the Japanese trim.

Citizens must adhere to government-mandated waistline limits or face consequences. The government has established waistline limits for adults ages 40 to 74. Men must maintain a waistline at or below 33.5 inches; for women, the limit is 35.4 inches. The "metabo law" went into effect in 2008, with the goal of reducing the country's overweight population by 25% by 2015. The government's anti-obesity campaign aims to keep "metabolic syndrome" — a number of factors that heighten the risk of developing diabetes and vascular diseases, such as obesity and high blood pressure, glucose and cholesterol levels — in check, thus minimizing the ballooning health care costs of Japan's massive ageing population.

Those who stray beyond the state-mandated waistlines are required to attend counseling and support sessions. Local governments and companies that don't meet specific targets are fined, sometimes quite heavily".


From Snopes (FWIW) it seems this is basically true, assuming the numbers for waistlines are real:

"Japan requires citizens between the ages of 45 and 74 to have their waistlines measured once a year and potentially seek medical attention.

Unlike individuals, however, companies and local governments can be assessed financial penalties if the citizens in their charge do not meet government standards".

I guess that having a national policy to limit metabolic syndrome might or might not have any influence of the course of a pandemic which targets people with metabolic syndrome.

We'll never know...

While the obvious initial advice for mitigating infection with SARS-CoV-2 was to try not to be elderly and to try not to be diabetic it now looks like simply trying not to be diabetic might have been all that mattered.

Peter