Japan Postcode-level Walkability Index (JPWI)

Walkability has been the focus of much attention in recent urban policy. In order to quantitatively verify the effects of walkability on local economies, residents' health, and other aspects of daily life, it is highly desirable to develop an objective walkability index covering a large geographical extent based on consistent criteria and release it in an easy-to-use format. We developed a walkability index (JPWI) of all postal code areas in Japan for public use, consisting of three neighborhood elements: population density, number of facility types, and road connectivity. The data table is available both in CSV and Microsoft Excel formats containing approximately 113,000 postcodes, coordinates of the representative point for each postcode boundary, and walkability values, with instructions for their use. For the user's convenience, the table file also includes the population density, intersection density, number of facility types within 1,000 meter buffers of the representative point. Using the postal code, a variety of social survey data in Japan can be easily combined with this objective walkability index for analysis. For more information on how to create the JPWI, see the article “Development of Japan Postcode-level Walkability Index and Examination of its Usefulness” (Quarterly Journal of Geography 75: 16-26).