It turns out, it began in Japan in the 60's and was really just a marketing accident rather than based on scientific facts. Would you like to know how many steps you should take to increase your longevity?

"A 2019 study by Dr. Lee and her colleagues found that women in their 70s who managed as few as 4,400 steps a day reduced their risk of premature death by about 40 percent, compared to women completing 2,700 or fewer steps a day. The risks for early death continued to drop among the women walking more than 5,000 steps a day, but benefits plateaued at about 7,500 daily steps." - NY Times

If you'd like to read more details about this, click on https://www.nytimes.com/2021/07/06/well/move/10000-steps-health.html?smid=em-share to read the entire article.