To reduce the risk of cardiovascular disease, Yamagata residents are encouraged to laugh at least once a day

This is a very serious order that comes from the elected officials of this prefecture. These elected officials are relying on a scientific study indicating that there was a slightly higher risk of death or cardiovascular disease among residents who laughed less often.

Will laughter solve many of our problems? At least that’s what the regional council of one of Japan’s largest regions thinks. Yamagata Prefecture officials have just adopted an official ordinance: residents are invited to laugh at least once a day. For these officials, this measure could save lives.

This is a very serious text that was voted on at the end of early July by the Prefectural Assembly of Yamagata Prefecture, a region in northeastern Japan. There were fierce debates and the conservative majority, which controls the region, managed to get this ordinance voted on. It contains two recommendations: try for residents to laugh at least once a day in order to promote an improvement in their psychological and physical health, but that’s not all. Companies in the prefecture are encouraged to create a work environment much more conducive to laughter. The prefecture has also decided that the 8th of each month will now be the official day for the promotion of laughter.

To make the connection between laughter and the health of residents, the elected officials of the prefecture rely on a scientific study, which was carried out by the Faculty of Medicine of the University of Yamagata. These researchers tried to find a correlation between laughter and major health problems.
They followed 17,000 residents of Yamagata Prefecture, both men and women aged over 40, for about five years. When these residents had their annual check-ups at one of the region’s public hospitals, the researchers asked them to answer a short questionnaire about their daily lives and their tendency to laugh.

They made charts of how often these residents laughed, noting who laughed more than once a day, more than once a week, or only once a month, and so on. Then they compared this data with the cardiovascular diseases of these 17,000 people and their possible causes of death. During the study period, there were 257 deaths in the sample and 138 cardiovascular problems. The researchers found that there was a slightly higher risk of death or cardiovascular disease among residents who laughed less often.

This order to promote laughter does not have unanimous political support. Many elected officials, from the center and the left, voted against the text, which they found ridiculous. They explained that it was not normal to promote laughter in this way among people who may suffer from illnesses or serious personal problems. Some even considered that this forced laughter was an attack on human rights. Hence the prefecture’s desire to promote laughter to reduce the health problems of its residents.