Exhorting residents to slim down in the year ahead, the city government here has mapped out 'The Great Citizens Campaign to Lose Three Kilograms.'

'This was the most delicious food I had ever eaten,' Kei Sunakawa, 51, said, his eyes bulging at the memory of eating at a McDonald's here for the first time. 'It was always a fun place, always filled with people.'

Mr. Sunakawa walked into a McDonald's in the Makiminato area the other afternoon. Standing pensively before the counter, his white polo shirt stretched over a belly that obstructed his view of his toes, he finally ordered a Big Mac, Fish McDippers and a medium oolong tea.