Japanese people are increasingly too fat or too thin, eat fewer vegetables and skip breakfast, as modern living takes its toll on the nation’s health, official data showed.
The statistics, released nearly halfway through a 10-year government plan aimed at improving health by 2010, showed that in key areas Japan was heading in the other direction.
About 29% of men aged 20 to 60 were overweight in 2002, compared with 24% five years earlier, the report said. The goal was to cut the figure to below 15% by 2010.
Nearly 27% of women in their 20s were underweight compared with 23% five years earlier, also heading away from a target of under 15%.
The survey was submitted on Monday to experts at the health ministry who are to make recommendations by next year.
The ministry is attempting to reach targets in about 70 categories through education campaigns and by ensuring up-to-date training of doctors, said Shigefumi Nakano, deputy director of the Office for Lifestyle Related Disease Control.
”This is a mid-term report. It does not mean that the situation will continue to worsen over the final five years,” he said.
Among healthy indices that worsened in the report, adults ate an average of 285g of vegetable matter a day, down from 292 grams five years earlier and short of the 350g goal.
And nearly a quarter of Japanese men in their 30s skipped breakfast, up from one in five in 1997, the report said.
Men and women of all ages are also walking less every day.
The health goals, renewed about every decade, are based on annual surveys of about 15 000 Japanese.
A separate education ministry study released earlier this month showed that the fitness of Japanese children was at record lows as they enjoyed the conveniences of hi-tech life.
The Japanese have long been famous for their health and longevity, in part because of the balanced traditional diet. – Sapa-AFP