Japan’s supermodel Moe Oshikiri can be seen in this photo (center). Next to her is former major league baseball player Tsuyoshi Shinjo. The two, along with a whole bunch of other folk took part in a marathon (cough, cough) event at Tokyo Midtown on Monday morning.

The event was part of mobile carrier KDDI au’s “Green Road Project.”

A real runner, Olympic marathon silver medalist Yuko Arimori, also attended the event. Altogether there were some 50 runners who participated.

KDDI (Japan’s International Telephone Company) launched the project through which au users can donate 1 yen for each 1 kilometer they walk or run, after downloading the company’s online service “au Smart Sports Run&Walk.”

The money raised will buy seeds of bitter gourd and morning glory to distribute for free at au shops. All of this is part of KDDI’s greening project. So far, KDDI says that 2.7 million yen ($30K) has been raised since the project’s launch in February.

I remember when I introduced the idea of walking/running for pledges some 20 years ago. All, I got were blank stares. We eventually raised $100K over the years which we sent off to southeast Asia.

Glad to see a major company in Japan is doing something similar.

Via: JapanToday

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