We want to start with an enormous THANK YOU for being a part of the 2025 Step Up Challenge. From World Suicide Prevention Day to World Mental Health Day, so many of you raised your voices and your sneakers to #StartTheConversation about mental health. All over Japan and beyond, you put yourselves out there for a better world and demonstrated the power of community kindness.
And now for the winners!
Fundraising winner:
– Community winner: Woody 2025 Tenjin Cup with ¥809,747 raised
Special shout-out to Alisa Simonds with ¥113,096 raised in Okinawa!
Awareness winners:
– Corporate winner: Section L (@sectionl.tokyo) with multiple employees and guests taking over 228,305 total steps with a creative stamp rally element
– Community winner: The U.S.-Japan Council Japan region (@usjapancouncil) held a community pickleball event, where, instead of steps, they tried to collectively get 20,320 pickleball “dinks”. This not only brought their community together through team sport, but also highlighted pickleball, a new emerging sport in Japan.
– School winner: St. Michael International School Kobe (@stmichaelskobe)
Most steps by one person in a day:
– Yasith Bandaranayake at 51,269 steps in a single 24-hour period
These funds will play a vital role in helping TELL expand our services and reach more people in need throughout Japan in 2026.
On behalf of the staff and board, we would like to acknowledge and thank everyone who joined the Step Up Challenge over the past month and helped to shine a spotlight on the importance of mental health.