Japan Study Finds Nearly Twofold Gap in Daily Steps by Area

Tokyo, June 22 (Jiji Press)--People in Japan’s most walkable municipalities log nearly twice as many daily steps as those in the least walkable ones, a study by a team of researchers at the University of Tokyo found.

The study, published Saturday in an international medical journal, found average step counts tended to be higher in municipalities--especially in urban areas--with built environments more conducive to walking.

The team analyzed 2023 data from Trima, a smartphone app that automatically records steps when users travel by foot. It examined about 1.5 million Trima users ages 20 to 64 in 951 municipalities across the country, each with at least 100 users.

The researchers then measured “walkability” on a five-point scale using indicators such as population density and the variety of public, commercial and other facilities, and tested how closely the scores tracked step counts.

Tokyo’s Toshima Ward posted the highest daily average, at 7,750 steps, while Kobayashi, a city in Miyazaki Prefecture, part of the Kyushu southwestern region, logged the lowest, at 4,026.

[Copyright The Jiji Press, Ltd.]