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Comment by JDiculous | Hacker News Reader

> it's probably just because weight-lifting isn't as popular in Japan as in the west

Don't discount the role of genetics. Some people are just naturally larger, others couldn't get large even if they tried. Although Japanese people would no doubt be bigger if there was more of a weightlifting culture, they'd still be slimmer than the average American.

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Diet probably has a role to play as well. Western diets generally seem to have more protein.

Eastern vs Western diet is far less relevant than Bodybuilder vs non-Bodybuilder diet.

And Japanese diets tend to have more soy which could lead to the explanation as to why Japanese men on average have more feminine characteristics. Studies have gone either way in suggesting this.

Maximum size for bodybuilders at least correlates to wrist circumference, so that could be true.

Sumo wrestlers, hello? That's so easy man!

A photo from an event at the Korean DMZ:

http://i.imgur.com/aHsayNH.png

From left to right, American, North Korean, South Korean.

A empirical illustration of both the role of genetic factors (American vs. South Korean) and the role of non-genetic factors (South Korean vs. North Korean)

I don't believe empirical means what you think it means. Perhaps you mean 'anecdotal'.

based on, concerned with, or verifiable by observation...

It's a tiny sample of empirical evidence to be sure.

The US army specifically picks tall soldiers for the DMZ. I heard about it in the 70s.

In the context of this discussion, it's really the NK vs. SK soldier that is interesting. The people of both N. & S. Korea are pretty close genetically, and presumably NK does not send their shrimps.

It would not surprise me if the South sent tall soldiers as well for such visible duty. While not directly relevant, it was slightly disorienting at the Forbidden City in Beijing when a group Chinese soldiers jogged by, every one of them well over six feet tall . . . absolute giants compared to the average people I saw around.

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