Japanese walking: how to do it, and what to do with the slow minutes

Japanese walking is interval walking: three minutes of brisk walking, then three minutes at an easy pace, repeated five times for about 30 minutes, four or more days a week. Researchers at Shinshu University in Matsumoto, Japan, developed it and first published results in 2007.

Most of what you read about it is about fitness, and that is what it was built for. What interests me is the other half of every round: three slow minutes where your breath settles and you finally have room to look around.

The short version

• Japanese walking means 3 minutes brisk, 3 minutes easy, five rounds, about 30 minutes, at least four days a week.
• In the first five-month study, interval walkers gained leg strength and aerobic fitness, and their systolic blood pressure dropped more than in a group that walked steadily at a moderate pace.
• The slow minutes are the part most people rush through. Use them to notice one thing around you, and the workout becomes a walk you remember.

How to do Japanese walking in 5 steps

• 1. Warm up for a few minutes. Walk at an easy pace until your legs feel loose.
• 2. Walk briskly for 3 minutes. Fast enough that talking gets hard and you can only manage short sentences. Take longer strides than usual and swing your arms, a tip from the researchers themselves.
• 3. Slow down for 3 minutes. An easy, comfortable pace. Let your breathing settle.
• 4. Repeat five times. That makes about 30 minutes. A timer on your watch or phone keeps the count so you don't have to.
• 5. Aim for four days a week. About 50 brisk minutes a week seems to be where the gains level off, so more is not much better.

If three brisk minutes feel like too much at first, start with one minute and build up, as sports physician Carlin Senter of UCSF told The New York Times. Three 10-minute sessions spread over a day can work about as well as one 30-minute walk. And if this is your main exercise, add strength work twice a week, plus some balance work.

What to do with the slow minutes

The brisk minutes take all your attention: your breath, your legs, the count. The slow minutes add little to the fitness gains on their own, which frees them up. That is where noticing fits in.

• First, let your breath come back. Feel it slow down over the first minute, the same way you would settle into a walking meditation.
• Then pick one thing to notice. A sound, the light on a building, a tree you've walked past a hundred times. Stay with it until the timer goes.
• Choose a route with something to see. A park, a river path or a street with trees gives the slow minutes more to work with.
• Keep it simple. One thing per round is enough. Five rounds, five things you would have missed on autopilot.

Your watch counts the intervals. Nobody counts what you noticed in between, and that is the part that stays with you. It may also help with the hardest part of Japanese walking, which is keeping it up: a walk you enjoy is one you are keener to repeat. For more ideas, here is how to motivate yourself to go for a walk, and if wonder is your thing, try an awe walk.

Questions people ask

How fast should the fast part be?

Fast enough that you can only speak in short sentences. Your breathing is a good guide. In the studies, the pace was set in a lab at 70% or more of each person's peak aerobic capacity, which most people feel as somewhat hard.

Is Japanese walking better than 10,000 steps?

In the first Shinshu study, people asked to walk more than 8,000 steps a day at a moderate pace saw little change in fitness over five months, while the interval walkers improved. How hard you walk mattered more than how far.

Is Japanese walking good for weight loss?

The Shinshu studies looked at fitness, leg strength and blood pressure, not weight, so I wouldn't promise weight loss from it. Much harder treadmill intervals have cut about 1 kg of body fat over 16 weeks in a recent trial.

Is it safe for everyone?

The research was done with healthy middle-aged and older adults. If you have a heart condition or haven't exercised in a while, check with your doctor before adding brisk intervals. Build up slowly too, since brisk intervals are harder on your knees and hips than steady walking.

Can I do Japanese walking with Mindtrek?

Keep the interval timer on your watch, and let the slow minutes be the time you look around. If you'd like a voice for the brisk part, pick an Energy walk in the app. It asks for what the researchers suggest: a bigger arm swing, a quicker stretch to a lamp post or a corner, then an easier pace. It is looser than five timed rounds, so keep the watch timer if you want the exact 3 and 3. Pick 5, 10 or 20 minutes and start from anywhere. Your first three guided walks are free.

And if you are in New York, the flat loop around the Great Lawn in Central Park works well for intervals. Ease & Ground in the City is a 35-minute Trek there for the days you want to go slow the whole way. Forest bathing deserves a note of its own; this one is about the intervals.

For the curious: the research behind it

You don't need any of this to start. It is here if you want to know where the advice comes from and how far it goes.

What interval walking does for fitness

In the first Shinshu study, 246 adults with an average age of 63 trained for five months. The interval walkers gained 13 to 17% in leg strength, about 9% in aerobic capacity, and lowered their systolic blood pressure more than steady walkers, who changed little. About 40% of each group missed their targets and were left out of the results, so real life is likely a bit less tidy. A later study with 679 people found that the gains grew with brisk minutes up to about 50 a week, while slow minutes made no measurable difference.

Why sticking with it is the hard part

Of 732 people who started the Shinshu program, only about one in five were still going after ten years, though they had kept far more fitness than people their age who were just starting. A 2024 review calls long-term adherence a key open challenge. In a 2025 trial, interval walkers also reported knee or hip pain more often than steady walkers. On the bright side, a review of 11 trials found that people enjoyed the same walk or run more outdoors and were keener to repeat it, though nobody measured whether they did.

What it does, and doesn't do, for your mind

The intervals themselves don't seem to add much here: in a small trial in Korea, mood, sleep and thinking tests came out the same for interval and steady walkers. Walking in general helps, with a review of 26 trials finding that walking eased anxiety symptoms. And noticing seems to add something of its own. Older adults who looked for wonder on a weekly walk felt more joy and less day-to-day distress over eight weeks. Students who simply paid attention to everyday nature for two weeks reported higher wellbeing, and not because they spent more time outside. Walkers with simple plans for what to notice reported better attention and less frustration, and a guided mindfulness audio kept walkers' attention on a short walk.

Nobody has tested noticing during the slow minutes of interval walking, so that part is my suggestion rather than a proven method. For weight, the closest evidence is a 2026 trial in Hong Kong where 75 minutes a week of hard treadmill intervals cut about 1 kg of body fat over 16 weeks compared with no exercise, whether people trained once a week or three times.

On the science: every study here is real. The underlined phrases link straight to the papers, and the full list is below. The summaries and takeaways are my own reading, simplified to be useful rather than complete.