[carlmr]

>many salarymen seem to live on a diet of fried chicken, hard liquor and cigarettes.

That's what surprised me the most visiting Japan. All the skinny people in Japan eating fried chicken, fried mashed potatoes, fried everything.

The only thing I could make out for why they were skinny was insane levels of portion control. Since they definitely didn't have time to do sports.

[HungSu]

Also a tremendous amount of walking. Japanese urban planning is much more pedestrian friendly than say, almost anywhere in the US.

[stefap2]

US has a problem with activity. No sidewalks, go everywhere by car except in a few big cities.

[carlmr]

Europe has that, too but we're not that skinny.

[joachim4]

But Western European diet "americanized" itself a lot recently. For example in France, some of the staple meals are burgers, tacos[0] and kebab.

[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/French_tacos

[solidsnack9000]

They are eating a lot of other food, actually; and that's why it works.