aruku& / ALKOO by NAVITIME (Japan municipal walking)
aruku& (ONE COMPATH) and ALKOO by NAVITIME are gamified pedometer apps that municipalities adopt to run citizen step competitions. Walkers gain points, redeem for local prizes/discounts. Miyagi prefecture's 'Health Walk' explicitly ranks municipalities (市町村) against each other.
Miyagi prefecture's leaderboard ranks municipalities by aggregate citizen steps; ALKOO partnership with Japan Walking Association explicitly enables 'self-government and enterprise step-count ranking events'. Companies-within-prefecture and prefecture-within-Japan leagues.
Residents of one city pool steps under their city's banner; aruku& redirects rewards (mileage points) to local retailers, so walking your neighborhood literally subsidises your local shops. Coordinated walking events convene strangers from the same ward.
Non-English-speaking-world variant rarely cited in BelongHub-style lists. Tight integration with municipal health policy (Kenko Nippon 21) makes it a model of public-sector deployment.
Others in the same family
Defi Sante (Capsana, Quebec)
Quebec-wide 6-week challenge each spring run by Capsana, asking citizens to commit to '5 portions of fruit/veg, 30 min activity, 2 hours quality sleep daily.' Municipalities sign up to mobilize residents, and the campaign awards 'Municipalites Championnes' status to top-performing towns and pays out ~$20k in prizes for citizen events. 21 municipalities crowned champions in a single recent edition.
WeWard - Neighborhood League
WeWard rewards walking with 'Wards' (redeemable for cash/vouchers). 'Cards' are local geo-pinned waypoints (~500m from home) acting like a treasure hunt. Users can form friend leagues and 'develop a community of walkers in their neighborhood'.
CitizenLab / Go Vocal Representativeness Dashboard
Belgian civic-engagement SaaS used by cities across Europe to run consultations, ideation, participatory budgeting. The Representativeness Dashboard compares each participating cohort's demographics (age, gender, neighbourhood, education) against the underlying ward/postcode-level population so cities can see which neighbourhoods are over- or under-represented in real time, and target outreach.
Plogga / Plogging (Stockholm-originated)
Swedish movement (plocka upp + jogga). Pick up litter while jogging. Now a globally networked grassroots community with 20,000+ daily participants in 100+ countries. Studied as a behaviour-change intervention combining exercise and environmental stewardship.
BetterPoints
Council-funded mobile app that auto-detects walking, cycling, bus, train, car-share trips and converts to BetterPoints redeemable at local retailers. Councils customize challenges per borough.
Beat the Street
Intelligent Health turns a whole town into a 6-week board game. ~60 contactless 'Beat Box' sensors are mounted on lampposts; residents tap an RFID card/fob between boxes (must be within 1 hour) to score points. 1.9-2M players to date across 200+ places; £321.80/adult social value (2025).