As an overworked Japanese civil servant, Makoto Hamamoto doesn't get to spend a lot of time with his wife.
When he does, the 48-year-old government official often gets scolded.
"She tells me I eat too much," said the pudgy Hamamoto, who carries 75kg on his 169cm frame.
Like Hamamoto, more and more Japanese -- especially middle-aged men -- are carrying extra weight. In a country where obesity was once a rarity, the trend has experts worried and the makers of diet products sitting up and taking notice.
"When you look at Japan from the outside, it's certainly true that sumo wrestlers are about the only really massive people, like those you might find in Western countries," said Yasushi Saito, a professor at Chiba University and editor-in-chief of the Journal of Japan Society for the Study of Obesity.
"Compared with Westerners, Japanese weigh less and have lower body mass indexes, but by no means can you make the diagnosis that the Japanese are underweight," he said. "There is a lot of obesity in Japan now."
Obesity is measured by body mass index (BMI), an international standard calculated by dividing weight in kilograms by height in meters squared. A BMI of 30 or more is considered obese in the West, while the figure for Japan is 25 or higher.
The percentage of obese Japanese males is lower than in the US, where nearly 68 percent of men aged 20 to 72 are at an unhealthy weight.
But the trend is worrying. A government survey in 2002 showed that more than 30 percent of Japanese men aged 30 to 69 were obese, a rise of more than 40 percent from two decades earlier.
Obesity, which can lead to diabetes, cardiovascular disease and certain types of cancer, has become a global epidemic that has even spread to the developing world.
A major culprit in Japan has been the shift to a Western-style diet. As Japanese have become fonder of fatty foods, fast-food chains and convenience stores have blanketed the country.
McDonald's restaurants and 7-Eleven stores are now so ubiquitous that some youngsters mistake the companies, originally American imports, for homegrown originals.
Work habits also play a big role in Japan's obesity problem.
"It's easy to overeat when you have to stay late at work," Saito said. "Compared to their Western counterparts, many more Japanese employees feel they must work for the sake of the company."
Sanae Hashimoto, a 30-year-old accountant in Tokyo, said she can see the effect in her own office.
"At my company, all the middle-aged men are fat," she said. "They work too much overtime."
Hamamoto estimates that he works more than 60 hours per week, and then brings more work home at night.
"I'm always thinking about my work, so I don't enjoy eating. I just eat," he said. "I think stress is the biggest factor."
Expanding male waistlines have begun to attract companies making health-related or weight-loss products, goods traditionally aimed at Japan's image-obsessed women.
"Men are gradually paying more attention to such products," said Tomoyuki Izuka, a health-food industry analyst at Yano Research Co, Ltd.
The changing male attitudes are due partly to a stepped-up government campaign warning men about "lifestyle-related diseases" such as obesity, Izuka said. "The feeling that they should be thin is certainly growing among men," he added.
Kao Corp, Japan's largest maker of household goods, has scored a success with a fat-burning green tea targeted at middle-aged men.
The bitter Healthya tea can reduce an obese person's fat by 10 percent if drunk daily for three months, a Kao spokesman said.
A year after its release, Healthya has seen sales of about ?20 billion (US$175 million), with middle-aged men accounting for about 60 percent of its consumers, he said.
The drink has spawned several imitators and is even sold by the case at some convenience stores -- a rarity in Japan.
Seiichi Yamamoto, vice president of Barrious Laboratories Inc, a Tokyo-based manufacturer of weight-loss products, said male customers have increased, especially when his company began selling through convenience stores last year.
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