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Japan: The Land That Doesn't Need Ozempic

Some 43% of Americans are obese, compared with just 4.5% of Japanese people. What explains this gap?

In March 2023, the Japanese medical authorities announced that the new weight loss drug Wegovy —which was in staggering demand across the world, causing shortages everywhere —had been approved to treat obesity in their country. I had learned there are massive health benefits to reversing obesity with these drugs: for example, Novo Nordisk ran a trial that found weekly injections reduced the risk of heart attack or stroke by 20% for participants with a BMI over 27 and a history of cardiac events. Barak Kushner, who is professor of East Asian History at the University of Cambridge, told the writer Bee Wilson, for her book First Bite, that until the 1920s, Japanese cooking was just “not very good.” Fresh fish was eaten only once a week, the diet was dangerously low in protein, and stewing or stir-frying were not much of a thing.

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