What we love about the Japanese gadget market is the ability to take a normal, boring product like alarm clocks and piggy banks and make them fun. In this case the same goes for pedometers, which fits in perfectly with a generation that is starting to be concerned with its health and relates well to gaming. Here’s a brief rundown of what we’ve found so far:
From Bandai, the Space Battleship Yamato (featured here) and 3000 Leagues in Search of Mother pedometers take classic anime and make them an RPG game to be played while doing your commute.
TaxiWalker simulates a cab’s meter, showing you how much money you save by walking, and the Jinsei Game (Game of Life) pedometer gives you spins on the wheel for every 300 steps. If you don’t move, you can’t play, though pacing around your apartment playing the game doesn’t seem too healthy either.
More stylish offerings are in the Seiko Slimstick and health phones from Fujitsu that are made on a more practical level for health monitoring, but don’t entertain the walker. Lap Around Japan, however, isn’t a game either, but it keeps track of your steps as if you’re walking around the coast of Japan. When you get to a new place the device gives you locational and historical information about the area.
Health gadgets are definitely on the rise in Japan, and pedometers are just one example as to how this is manifesting itself in the marketplace. We know one older gentleman in television that now walks to and from work every day (30 minutes each way) all the while carrying his stylish pedometer, and then loves to show off the kilometers he’s racking up. Of course, he’s doing it for the health, not to level-up on the embedded RPG!
Michael is the Editor of JapanTrends.com and Director of the 
