Cities have long been places for various people to gather, interact, and perform various activities. However, in recent years, cities have faced decreasing populations, aging, and other significant changes. Urban areas have become suburban, shop districts have been boarded up, and places that were once bustling have grown quiet. Furthermore, the gathering, interaction, and activity of various people is essential for driving innovation, which is necessary for the economic growth of mature societies. In response to this situation, this text introduces initiatives to draw out the full potential of cities by transforming the essential “downtown” area into a people-centered area and creating “Comfortable and Walkable” towns that stimulate the gathering, interaction, and activity of various people.

Walking is the most common form of physical activity and is important for maintaining and improving health; however, the step counts of Japanese people are on the decline. Based on the data analyses of the Yokohama Walking Point Program conducted by the City of Yokohama, the author introduced the four "D"s and two "P"s as elements of urban planning and design to encourage walking. In particular, changes in the importance of public parks under the first state of emergency for COVID-19 and the potential of location-based games to promote walking among middle-aged and elderly people were discussed in detail.

The shift from automobile-oriented cities to walkable, people-centered cities is underway around the world. In the early 2000s, the Walkable Index was proposed, and many studies have been conducted on the walkability of cities. Many studies have proven that walking has various effects on human health. Increasingly severe global environmental problems and the spread of COVID-19 since the end of 2019 are pushing this urban transformation forward rapidly, moving us toward the construction of integrated sustainable cities on a human scale, such as 15-minute cities. I would like to give an overview of what kind of debate has been going on in the world from the end of the 1990s to the present from the perspective of walking.

In Japan, the number of musculoskeletal related disease cases is increasing along with the aging of society. Musculoskeletal disorders are responsible for more than 20% of cases of elderly people needing nursing care services. “Locomotive syndrome” is proposed to detect musculoskeletal dysfunctions earlier and prevent the progression of those disabilities at an early stage. “Locomotive syndrome” is referred to as a condition that leads to requiring nursing care and is at risk of developing because of problems due to locomotive disabilities. Individuals with “Locomotive syndrome” show signs when walking, including reduced hip extension during the stance phase, reduced hip flexion and knee flexion during the swing phase, and slower walking speed. Therefore, in addition to increasing the amount of time spent active through walking for effective pre-symptomatic treatment, it is important to rectify these issues through reinforcement training such as locomotive exercises for individuals with “Locomotive syndrome.”

In this paper, we introduce power assist suits worn by humans that support movement and posture using external energy. We report on the development status of HIMICO, a power assist suit that reduces the burden when walking, while summarizing the situation surrounding power assist suits using our own back support model as an example. HIMICO is a wire-type assist suit that supports the hips while walking. Due to its light weight and small size, it promotes walking as exercise for the elderly and is expected to extend their healthy lives.

The Honda Walking Assist device is lightweight and easy to wear with a high degree of freedom in usage environments. By focusing on these features, we verified the adaptability of this device to children with disabilities for walking practice in indoor and outdoor environments near their homes, including inside their houses. In this article, we talk about the history of research and development for walking assist technologies at Honda, the principle of the Walking Assist, and the result of clinical test for children with cerebral palsy using this device in walking practice. Furthermore, we discuss future perspectives regarding the transformation of people's lives due to COVID-19.