The Japanese are a very health-minded group of people, a fact observed by Aflac founder John Amos when he visited the country in 1970, seeing people wearing those health masks in public and generally being very focused on personal health issues. The company decided to found a subsidiary to sell cancer insurance in Japan, which turned out to be one of the best investments in history — Aflac now insures one in four households in Japan, raking in billions. The Japanese do many things to keep healthy, including eating right (their diet includes a lot more fish and healthy foods, and portions that are, ahem, more reasonable than in the U.S.), and choosing unsweetened barley and green tea over sweetened drinks. They also promote exercise in various forms, including something called rajio taiso, or radio calisthenics, a fun short program of morning exercises that was begun in 1925 by the Metropolitan Life Insurance Company to promote personal good health. This idea greatly appealed to the Japanese for some reason, and they made it a part of their daily culture, broadcasting a sensible morning exercise program that everyone from age 5 to age 95 can take part in from that point on. Employees at companies and children in school also do these callisthenics together, and in addition to improving health, it acts as a kind of social glue that holds people together.
“Radio Calisthenics” for good health.
