[floatl][/floatl]AP via Chron.com: Japan Battles Rising Obesity
For those who think Japan is all fish and tofu, consider Sayaka Oyama's former diet: spaghetti and meat sauce for lunch, chocolates and cookies for snack and a dinner of rice balls and sandwiches at nighttime classes. Late at night, the 10-year-old slurped down some quick noodles before going to bed. That diet had a predictable outcome - one that doctors are seeing more in Japan as the country leaves behind traditional food habits. At 9 years old, Sayaka stood 4 feet 2 inches, and weighed 108 pounds, about 50 pounds over her ideal weight..."I don't know for how long Japan can maintain the world's highest longevity," says Yukio Yamori, director of the International Center for Research on Primary Prevention of Cardiovascular Diseases. "If eating habits change, life expectancy will shorten and this has already been made clear"...more...
FG Thread: Japan is Fat

Well this stuff really isn't rocket science.

Snack foods here are very cheap, and very quick. Walk into any supermarket and you will see prominent rows stacked with instant ramen and yakisoba priced at about 100 yen.

Putting your kid through nightclasses means they won't have time to have a proper evening meal, and of course they'll be hungry when they get home. Unless you are a super-consciencous parent - you won't be presenting them with a low calories nutritious snack, but making sure that your cupboard is stacked with instant ramen for a warm quick calorie laden comforting snack.

Of course then the kid drops off to sleep - satisfied momentarily - but storing the calories. And then the cycle repeats - ending up with the kid becoming overweight.

Then drastic measures like sending them off somewhere else to learn about nutrition and exercise are taken - putting more pressure on the kid.

Perhaps instead of throwing a pile of money at the issue, health classes at school should be featuring this kind of information. It's been a *little* while since I went through the school system - but my memories of home economics and health did not adequately cover these topics. So then you get a generational cycle of people who don't know much about proper nutrition, ending up with this situation in which some external intervention and education is required.

It is also the whole "cram school" lifestyle.. it is really uneccessary IMHO.. if the kids are at a decent school and come home and do their homework (like we all did when we went to school), do lots of extra study before exams they will get into a good university (like we did).

Most kids who go to crams schools are playing up at their regular schools as they know they are going to get the same lessons again that night.

Cram schools are just a HUGE waste of money for parents who are guilt-tripped into forking out for cash. Good, smart kids who do their homework, study hard (but also have a good balance of life and homework) will be the sucessful ones everytime.

But cram schools are also stopping kids from running around, sports practice or just being kids as well as encouraging poor eating habits. But then they do allow parents the freedom to not have to interact with or, heaven forbid, get to know them as people... Saves all those horrible and awkward personal interactions during the most "troublesome" ages.

CBC: Japan's junk-food obession

...Younger Japanese are trading healthy Japanese foods for an expanding diet of unhealthy American-style fast food and increasingly junky junk food. Potato chips are replacing dried fish, chocolate bars are pushing aside rice cakes, and cookies and cake might actually be more popular than anko (sweet bean paste), long a Japanese staple. American fast-food franchises are quite literally everywhere in Japan, and have inspired a slew of home-grown imitators. Many Japanese consider lunch at an American fast-food restaurant the pinnacle of convenience, while many youth consider it the pinnacle of cool. It may be both, but it's also having some not-so-cool consequences...more...

IHT: Japanese waist watchers use cell phone cameras to get diet advice

Wondering how much of a diet-buster that banana cream pie on your plate is? Some Japanese have a novel way to find out: Photograph it with your cell phone and send the image to an expert. With cell phones ubiquitous in Japan and rising concern over expanding waistlines, health care providers have put two and two together to allow the calorie-conscious to send photos of their meals to nutritionists for analysis and recommendations. Public health insurance offices in Osaka prefecture in western Japan have launched the service on a trial basis. About 100 cardiac patients signed up in the first year, followed by diabetes and obesity patients in the second...more...