00:00If you live in Japan, your employer will take care of your waistline.
00:04In the USA, you won't be able to put a chicken on your head, even if you want to do it a
00:08lot.
00:09Plus, you'll find a Kinder Surprise egg only in the black market in this country.
00:14In Australia, you won't be allowed to touch a lightbulb in a public place.
00:18Yep, you got it right.
00:20We're talking about the weirdest bans and laws in the world.
00:25Your waistline can't be too wide in Japan, otherwise you might get in trouble.
00:29I'm not kidding.
00:31There's a curious regulation in this country, called the Metabolaw.
00:35It was implemented to stop people living in Japan from gaining weight.
00:39Since 2008, everyone from the ages of 40 to 74 has to have their waist measured by their
00:44employer.
00:45The main goal of this campaign is to shrink the overweight population by 10 to 25%.
00:51If a man's waistline is more than 33.5 inches and a woman's is above 35 and 6 inches, they'll
00:57have to take on some serious physical activity, and these weight loss classes will be funded
01:02by their employer.
01:04If a company repeatedly fails to meet specific targets, namely to reduce the number of overweight
01:10employees, they get fined.
01:12There have been reports of large corporations getting fines of up to $19 million for missing
01:16their targets.
01:18Panasonic reportedly gives its employees Metabo check towels with tape measure-like markings.
01:24They allow employees to keep track of their waistlines and wipe their tears when they
01:27don't meet the requirements.
01:30Still, some companies aren't very strict about this law.
01:34After all, initially, the authorities wanted to ensure there was a minimum of 65% participation.
01:40In any case, it's a mistake to believe that the Metabolaw bans obesity, making it illegal.
01:48In the USA, no one will say a word about the size of your waistline.
01:52But if you pull a Kinder Surprise out of your pocket, oh, in this case, you'll have
01:56to pay a pretty penny.
01:58The thing is, confectionery products that contain a non-nutritive object are prohibited
02:03by law in this country, unless this non-nutritive object is functional, like a stick inside
02:09a lollipop.
02:11A few decades ago, the Consumer Product Safety Commission examined and issued a recall for
02:16some Kinder Surprise eggs that had been brought into the US illegally.
02:21The toys within the eggs had small parts.
02:23The members of the commission decided that this chocolate product was intended for kids
02:27of all ages, including the youngest.
02:30But since these yummies violated the small parts regulation, they concluded that Kinder
02:34Surprise should be banned from being imported into the USA.
02:38In January 2011, one person was threatened with being fined more than $200 for carrying
02:44a single egg across the US border into Minnesota.
02:48And in June 2012, two Seattle men were held for two and a half hours after returning to
02:53the US from a trip to Vancouver.
02:55They had six Kinder Surprise eggs in their car.
02:58They were shocked when the potential fine was announced – $2,500 per egg!
03:05And still, Kinder Surprise eggs remain popular on the black market.
03:10You can easily buy Kinder Surprise in Sweden, but you won't be able to bring some other
03:15products into the country.
03:17For example, sausages, butter, chocolate, and even potatoes grown outside of the European
03:22Union.
03:23Expired products are also prohibited.
03:26Speaking of sausages and butter, in particular, this unusual measure was taken to protect
03:31the internal market and Swedish agriculture.
03:34At the same time, this ban has a broader interpretation of more general import restrictions, like
03:40all meat and dairy products imported from other countries outside the EU.
03:45As for the products you can't bring home as a souvenir from Sweden, it's definitely
03:49surströmming, at least if you're traveling by plane.
03:53It's an infamous delicacy made of fermented sea herring.
03:57After being caught, the fish are stored in a series of salted water solutions.
04:01Two months later or so, the partially preserved herrings are placed in airtight tins, and
04:06they continue to ferment for about a year.
04:09Three days after you open a can of surströmming, the stench of fermented herring will still
04:13be hanging in the air.
04:15It'll cling to your skin and hair, hide between the threads of your tablecloth.
04:20Imagine a can of this stinky goodness exploding on a plane, affected by the changes of the
04:24atmospheric pressure in the cabin.
04:27You'd be begging for a parachute.
04:30And if your wish was granted, you could land in Wisconsin, where it was once prohibited
04:34to wear a chicken on your head.
04:36Yep, you heard it correctly.
04:38While it's not actually clear whether this law ever existed in the first place, but it
04:43sure doesn't work these days.
04:45But rumors claim that you couldn't enter Wisconsin while carrying a chicken on your head.
04:49I mean, why would you want to wear a bird on your head?
04:53However ridiculous this law sounds, it's not truly unique.
04:57Just one state away in Minnesota, it's reportedly illegal to enter the state while carrying
05:02a duck on your head.
05:03I guess it makes the border between the two states a bird-free zone.
05:07Anyway, these laws are likely nothing more than an urban myth.
05:13That's not the end of the chicken story.
05:15In the town of Quitman, Georgia, it's officially illegal for chickens to cross the road.
05:20The town's legislation officially states that if you're an owner of any domestic fowl, you
05:25mustn't allow them to wander the streets of the town or be on the premises of any other
05:29person.
05:31The law was implemented to make people keep their farmyard birds properly contained at
05:35all times and prevent them from roaming on public property.
05:38So if you live in Quitman, own a chicken, and let it roam free, get ready for a very
05:43unpleasant visit resulting in a large fine.
05:48In Victoria, Australia, chickens are totally free to do whatever they want, but people
05:53aren't.
05:54Once it was illegal to change a lightbulb unless you were a licensed electrician.
05:58Taking your own lightbulb into your own hands could result in a fine of 10 Australian dollars.
06:04Luckily, a revision to the 1988 Electricity Safety Act brought a necessary update to this
06:10law.
06:11According to it, it was still legal to do your own electrical work if you didn't have
06:15a license, but you could change a lightbulb and remove a plug from a socket on your own.
06:20At the same time, you're still not permitted to change lightbulbs in commercial and public
06:24establishments, particularly in Western Australia.
06:28By the way, another thing you can't do in Victoria is fly a kite to the annoyance of
06:33any person or sing an obscene song or ballad in a public place.
06:37In Queensland, it's illegal to post fake job advertisements.
06:41And in New South Wales, drivers splashing mud on public bus passengers can be fined
06:45up to $2,200.
06:50Even though Canada is on the other side of the world, it has its own share of weird bans,
06:55and one of them is related to coins.
06:58In this country, nothing is more important than politeness, and when you go shopping
07:02there, you shouldn't inconvenience the cashier by giving them too much change.
07:07So, there's a legal limit on the number of coins you can use for a single transaction.
07:13The Currency Act implemented in 1985 states that one can use no more than 25 pennies,
07:19100 nickels, 100 dimes, 40 quarters, 25 $1 coins, or 22 $2 coins within one transaction.
07:32If you exceed these limits, the vendor can refuse to accept them and you won't be able
07:36to complain.
07:37It's the law.
07:39It was actually created to prevent people from paying for expensive stuff with hundreds
07:43and thousands of coins and making cashiers count them.
07:47If you don't live in Canada, such limitations may seem weird.
07:52At the same time, they start to make sense when you read how in 2015, an American student
07:58had to pay a $110 parking ticket and decided to do it using 11,000 pennies.
08:05He had to visit a few banks to collect the coins in five giant boxes.
Comments