In order to increase mental health awareness, TELL Japan hopes you will step up to its latest physical challenge.
The Step Up Challenge encourages people to walk 21,081 steps in a single day — the same number of lives lost to suicide in Japan last year — during a monthlong campaign that lasts from Sept. 10, World Suicide Prevention Day, until Oct. 10, World Mental Health Day.
The Tokyo-based nonprofit has provided counseling and support to Japan’s international community for close to five decades, and its annual Tokyo Tower Climb last raised ¥5 million for TELL and its services in 2019. When the pandemic hit, however, the group changed tack. The result was Step Up, which raised ¥1.2 million last year.