The diet boom in Japan is impacting not just the adults. Nowadays, even high school girls and junior high school girls try to goon a diet. Interestingly, most ofthe people who try to diet are not so obese in the first place if generallyaccepted medical standards for obesity are used. Japanese women and girls try to diet because they want to wear the most fashionable clothes in Japan. I was curious about this, so I conducted a ratherunscientific survey on the streets about this. Here are some interesting findings from my survey for the18-40 years old group: | Height | Percentage of women in the respective height group | Body fat | Percentage of women in the respective body fat group | | Height 149cm (<5') and under | 10% | 15% to 20% | 86% | | 150cm to 159cm (5' to 5'4") | 65% | 21% to 22% | 9% | | 160cm to 164cm (5'4" to 5'6") | 20% | 23% | 4% | | 165cm (5'6") and over | 5% | 24% | 1% |  Among the women with height ranging149 cm and less, 79% ofthe women have their waists in the range 56 cm to 58 cm and the weight is in the35 to 39 kg range. In the 150 to159 cm height group, the weight range is 40 to 45 kg and the average waist sizeis 61 cm. For the 160 to 164 cmheight group, the weight range is wider with 97% of the women reporting it to bebetween 40 and 49 kg. However,among really tall Japanese women, that is 165 cm and higher, 86% of the womenhave their weight between 46 and 49 kg. (Related article: Book review of "Why Japanese Women Don't Get Fat")
These statistics clearly show that Japanese women areobsessed about how slim they look. Compared to other oriental women, they might very well beoverly slim already despite the fact that the younger generation may have abetter body built than the previous generation. This is in contrastto other cultures, especially the US, where the concern about being slim is onlymodestly strong. In some other cultures, being a bit chubby is actuallyappreciated. (Related: Diet makeover) | 
