The winners of the "2026 BEST WALKNIST AWARD" will be selected! Twelve winners will be honored at "THE WALK JAPAN 2026" to be held on Monday, March 23. The 12 winners will be honored at "THE WALK JAPAN 2026" to be held on Monday, March 23.

THE WALK JAPAN 2026, sponsored by the Professional Walking Association (PWA), has announced the winners of the "2026 BEST WALKNIST AWARD".

List of "2026 BEST WALKNIST AWARD" winners

2026 BEST WALKNIST

Entertainment Category

Chizuru Azuma (Actor / President, Get in touch)

Maki Ohguro (Singer-songwriter)

Kazuhiro Nishijima (Dance Choreographer/Dance Artist)

Economic Category

Taijiro Nakamura (Chairman of Stone Market Co., Ltd.)

Miya Kuroda (CEO, elite Japan)

Kirara Asuka (Businesswoman/Producer)

Sports Division

Yuzo Tashiro (Former Japanese national soccer team member/JFA International Committee member)

Tatsuya Fukuzawa (Former Japanese volleyball team representative / Osaka Bulteon Ambassador)

Cultural Division

Kyoyoyo Saito (Actor / Gravure Model)

Yamaguchi Kanan (Miss World 2022 Japan / Sports Talent)

AMANE (Artificial leg model)

TEEN Division

Ria Yonezawa (Model/Talent)

2025 BEST WALKNIST AWARD" Award Ceremony (1)

2025 BEST WALKNIST AWARD" Award Ceremony (2)

The award ceremony will be held on Monday, March 23, 2026 at Yokohama Landmark Hall (Landmark Plaza 5F, 2-2-1 Minato Mirai, Nishi-ku, Yokohama, Kanagawa Prefecture).

This award honors "people who walk beautifully in life in their own way" and "people who have made an impact on the world through the way they walk and the way they are.

Twelve people were selected from various fields including entertainment, economy, sports, culture, and TEEN.

The "2026 BEST WALKNIST AWARD" was established to realize PWA's philosophy of "making walking beautifully a culture.

The award winners were selected based on the following criteria

1. those who are active in various fields such as sports, music, art, literature, politics, and entertainment, and have influenced people with their walk

2. those who live their lives beautifully by walking in a way that is beautiful and true to themselves.

The award ceremony will be held on the stage of "THE WALK JAPAN 2026" on the day of the event, and a plaque will be awarded.

Those selected as the BEST WALKNIST will also serve as judges for THE WALK JAPAN 2026.

Through this event, we hope to convey to many people that walking beautifully is not just a physical movement, but a symbol of living one's life to the fullest, and to promote the culture of walking.

Outline of the event

2026 BEST WALKNIST AWARD

Event name: THE WALK JAPAN 2026

Date: Monday, March 23, 2026

Venue: Yokohama Landmark Hall

Sponsor ：The Professional Walking Association of Japan

Number of award winners: 12

THE WALK JAPAN 2026

The world's first walking competition established by PWA in 2022, specializing in wellbeing with a focus on "walking beautifully" and "regulating the world's mind and wellbeing through the way we walk".

This is an innovative and borderless competition in the world that removes all lookism based on appearance and height, ageism based on age, marital status based on marital status, sexism based on sex and gender, nationalism based on nationality, and so on.

Walking beautifully is connected to wellbeing, sustainability, SDGs, preventive medicine, healthy life extension, health management, environmental conservation, education, and international human power.

While major corporations, the United Nations, and the World Health Organization are emphasizing "wellbeing," THE WALK is the only event that systematizes "walking," "body axis," and "breathing," which are the fundamentals of wellbeing.