2026/10/14
Fitness Testing, Just by Stepping onto a Mat — Year Two of Adachi City's "Hatsuratsu" Testing Events
A hand holding a stopwatch, and a stack of paper record sheets. In preventive-care programs for older adults, fitness testing often takes considerable staff time — measuring each test and writing down each result. Adachi City in Tokyo runs the "Hatsuratsu" testing events, which automated that measurement and record-keeping in FY2025 and are now in their second year.
What the Hatsuratsu testing events are
A program run by Adachi City for residents aged 65 and over, measuring both physical fitness and cognitive function (yocto handles the fitness testing; cognitive testing is a separate part of the program). Events are held regularly across the city, and eligible residents can join without any advance registration.
The events are held at 14 locations across the city, including community learning centers, with each venue holding a session once a month. In FY2025, about 1,791 people (counting repeat participants) took fitness tests with our equipment.
At a testing event — a one-leg standing test on the mat
Fitness testing, just by stepping on
The fitness-testing app "yoctoHTRTFit" and the sensor mat "yoctoMat" (1,392 pressure sensors in a 58×24 array) automatically measure and record TUG (Timed Up and Go), the one-leg standing test, and the Five Times Sit-to-Stand test. No cameras are used.
For TUG, the sensors on the mat automatically detect the sequence of standing up from a chair, walking, and sitting back down. Once a staff member starts the test on an iPad, measurement and recording are handled automatically.
Results are recorded automatically, so each participant's changes can be tracked over time. The features are customized to fit Adachi City's programs.
Staff check results on an iPad; records are saved automatically
Putting the data to use
Measurement data is linked to a system built by Nihon Computer Co., Ltd., so that each participant's measurements can be viewed together with their past records.
Comment from Mr. Yuki Sakurai, Nihon Computer Co., Ltd. (Translated by yocto):
"Without yoctoMat, staff and participants have to spend some amount of time writing measurement results down on paper or entering them into the system by hand. Front-line staff already have a lot to keep an eye on — running the venue, supporting participants' safety — so I think the biggest benefit of this mat is that it removes one of those tasks. It also helps prevent recording errors, and I think it has created an environment where staff can focus on what they should really be focusing on.
On the system side, we put a lot of emphasis on real-time performance, and yocto worked closely with us at the infrastructure level — coordinating and adjusting together — which made the result easy to use for users."
Feedback from the field (Shinko Sports Co., Ltd., in charge of on-site operations for FY2026)
We've been told that operations have become more efficient because manual entry of measurement results is no longer needed, eliminating the input errors that came with it. Based on their actual measurements: with two mats, a 90-minute testing event can handle about 40 people, at roughly 4–5 minutes per person including explanation (under the previous manual method, entering figures for around 20 people, reflecting them in graphs, printing the forms, and double-checking reportedly took 2–3 hours).
Participant feedback and Adachi City's comment
(Translated by yocto)
"At the Hatsuratsu testing events, we place importance on having residents take part easily and come to know their own physical condition and how it changes. By automating everything from measurement through record-keeping, we have been able to run the events more smoothly, and we can now continuously accumulate measurement results and check how each person's physical fitness changes over time.
Going forward, we will continue to enhance the Hatsuratsu testing events so that the measurement results can be connected to each participant's own efforts toward preventive care."
Year two, and what comes next
After development and deployment in the first year, the system remains in operation in its second year.
yoctoMat set up at a venue
Program: Adachi City, Welfare Department, Senior Hatsuratsu Support Division
Data integration: Nihon Computer Co., Ltd.
Devices and app: yocto Co., Ltd. (Fukuoka, Japan)
*Information in this article is current as of September 2026.
Contact
We offer an introduction deck for local governments, health insurance societies, and organizations that run fitness-testing events. In a free 30-minute consultation, we can talk through how this would fit your on-site operation.
