Open University

The other day in the middle of the night when I was unwittingly zapping TV channels, I chanced upon "Open University of Japan(放送大学)" giving a lecture for people studying toward a degree in marketing. The lecture compared the selling of health care products in Britain and the US.
The gist of the program was that if you sell the same product in the two markets, you must take totally different ways. In Britain, if you make an advertisement for a cold medicine (風邪薬), for instance, you are not allowed to promise no more than that it might make you feel a little better.
On the other hand, a commercial for the same drug in US, would promise perfect and immediate cure. A person on the US side of the Atlantic who took this miracle tablet would feel better than he had for years and finish the day having the time of his life at a bar attracting several gorgeous girls' eyes.
All this indicates that the British do not so much expect over-the-counter drugs to change their lives, while Americans will settle for nothing less. The passing of the years has not, it appears, dulled the notion. When you go to the US, you have only to watch any television channel for a few minutes, flip through a magazine, to realize that people in US expect to feel more or less perfect all the time.
I suspect Japan is somewhere between the two, a bit closer to US. However, the national obsession with health is almost as collossus as in US. People insatiably pursuit drugs that makes them live longer than God wish you to. I do not know if all this is actually worth it. What I know is watching 放送大学 for 30 minutes before retiring promises you a good night's sleep even before you go to bed. It is really good for your health.