Japan's golfers (from left) Mizuki Hashimoto, Ayaka Tezuka and Miku Ueta laughing at their wefie after winning the Queen Sirikit Cup at Laguna National in Singapore on May 27, 2022. - ST FILE
TOKYO: Good health has become a laughing matter for the approximately one million residents of Japan’s Yamagata prefecture, after lawmakers passed an ordinance calling on locals to laugh at least once a day.
The ordinance was adopted on July 5, after a majority in the prefectural assembly voted for residents to make laughing a daily habit to “promote physical and psychological health”, Japanese media reported.
The law’s origins are rooted in findings published in the Journal of Epidemiology in 2020 by researchers from Yamagata University’s Faculty of Medicine.
They suggest that increasing the frequency of laughter may reduce the risk of cardiovascular disease and “increase longevity”.
Yamagata’s prefectural assembly designated the eighth of every month as a “laughing day” for residents to “promote health through laughter”.
Employers are also expected to promote physical and mental health by creating a work environment filled with laughter.
The law was drafted by Japan’s ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP), which holds a majority in Yamagata’s assembly.
Opposition lawmakers from parties including the Japanese Communist Party (JCP) voted against the ordinance, citing a violation of human rights of those who may have difficulty laughing due to illness or injury.
One state assemblyman said the government should consider how residents may not be motivated to laugh due to unstable employment, low wages and the rising cost of living.
“I believe that politics should not tell people to laugh, but to do everything in their power to resolve the difficulties faced by the residents so that many of them can smile,” said prefectural assemblyman Seki Toru from the JCP.
In response, LDP lawmaker Kaori Ito said: “The ordinance does not force people to laugh. It also emphasises the respect for an individual’s personal decision.”
The prefectural assembly also noted that there is no punitive penalty for those who fail to laugh every day.
The LDP had sought public opinion on the ordinance from Jan 24 to Feb 6.
A group called the Yamagata Administrative Check Volunteer Association on July 1 started a petition calling for the withdrawal of the laughing law.
The group said the “abnormal law” risked becoming a precedent as an infringement on freedom, or worse, a “humiliating laughing stock”. As at July 11, it has gathered more than 300 signatories. - The Straits Times/ANN
