Well. How ... interesting. AND NOT SAFE FOR WORK (No naughty pictures, but the TITLE attribute might give a bit of pause)
In 2005, Japan's Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare pronounced that roughly one middle-aged person in two was at risk for so-called "metabolic syndrome" -- caused by smoking, drinking, eating and other excesses combined with a sedentary lifestyle -- that raised the likelihood of cardiovascular disease, diabetes and strokes. The ministry's policy now obliges people between the ages of 40 to 74 to take medical examinations to check for excessive internal fat, high blood pressure and high blood-sugar levels, and to receive health advisories when warranted. [...] The middle-aged spread, reports Asahi Geino (4/24), has given rise to a completely new type of sex business: the "Datsu-metabo fuuzoku" -- sex shops with services designed to help pudgy, middle-aged men bang their way back to health and enjoy themselves in the bargain.
"If she can get my fatty liver back in shape, she'll deserve a Nobel Prize," Asahi Geino's reporter remarks, tongue in cheek....
There then follows a description of a "research investigation" that would produce mild hysteria in any American magazine editorial staff this side of, say, Hustler. (The odd thing about the writing, frankly, is that it reads very much as if the reporter were watching the researcher do his ... er, research.) And honestly, it doesn't seem terribly ... well, aerobic, for lack of a better word. Even if he'd managed to complete the entire hour.
Apart from the societal differences that would allow such a place to even exist openly -- after all, we do have Nevada, and Canada has ... well, Canada, so such a place is at least possible in a few restricted locations -- it's interesting that the services performed don't seem noteworthy, in and of themselves. If you could even get a US weekly to publish an article like this, the tone would certainly be quite a bit more scandalized -- especially if the reporter himself were doing the writing after experiencing said "research". It does, after all, sound as though said "research" implements were neither discussed beforehand nor expected before being used, and I would think your average American male would be just a tad incensed at the very idea. And honestly, I'd have to see actual research -- as opposed to this research -- on the aerobic and health benefits of said research tools used in quite that way before I'd believe in quite those particular health benefits. Enjoyable, perhaps; aerobic exercise with improved cardiovascular health and blood pressure, maybe not so much. And even then ... frankly, when it comes to exercise for the sake of exercise, I think I'd prefer fewer distractions.
Interestingly enough, the price doesn't actually seem all that bad, for the services offered. 8,000 Yen translates to roughly $78 per hour, more or less; assume that it rounds up to $100 with a tip, if that's allowed. A personal trainer offering the normal help with exercises and equipment is going to cost you $60-100 per hour in the US, if Wikipedia is correct, so it's entirely in line with that sort of cost, if that costs the same in Japan. That said, one can but agree with the reporter: most people really couldn't afford a full four-hour session. Unless you're Eliot Spitzer, of course. And if he'd embarked on a $400 per session exercise program, as opposed to a $15,000 per session one, he might never have been caught.
Posted by iain at April 23, 2008 11:52 AM
