One thing I was always fascinated with while living in Japan was the fight against your aging metabolism, or “metabo” for short. See, a couple of years ago the Japanese Ministry of Health started to popularize the fears of metabolic syndrome, and became a product innovation platform of its own.
Metabo is simply being obese, granted it’s a much cooler word and sounds better to say “she’s metabo” than “she’s obese”, and that’s possibly why marketing has gone so well for overweight inspired gadgets over there. When the health ministry, the government, school, and work all consider something to be a sociatal taboo, you better believe people will get on a bandwagon to prevent it from happening to them.
Which is why you see things like… oh… keychains that say your weight, the size on the outside of your shirt, office weight postings, exercise enforcement at school and the workplace and of course; overpriced measuring tapes.
So, $450 lands you a digital measuring tape that’s accurate to one millimeter and a little more reason to push yourself past your 18-hour workday to stay fit. Because it’s not so much about being truly health conscious as much as it is about an esteem boost I think. Being in a hyperculture is intense, I almost dropped out of school when I was over there because of it. Everyone is bustling around, rushing through the day, only to get home and start it again in a matter of hours. Feeling like you have some control, even if it is just over your weight, is a big deal.
