Japan’s Robotic Revolution
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Faced with an aging population, Japan is banking on robots to replenish its dwindling workforce. Robots are already a familiar sight in many factories across the country, but scientists are experimenting with new technologies—like the ones that allow this humanoid robot to respond to facial cues—as robots make their way into daily life.
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“To live among people, robots need to handle complex social tasks,” said project leader Junichi Takeno of Meiji University. “Robots will need to work with emotions, to understand and eventually feel them.
While robots are a long way from matching human emotional complexity, the country is perhaps the closest to a future—once the stuff of science fiction—where humans and intelligent robots routinely live side by side and interact socially.
Robots are already taken for granted in Japanese factories, so much so that they are sometimes welcomed on their first day at work with Shinto religious ceremonies. Robots make sushi. Robots plant rice and tend paddies.
There are robots serving as receptionists, vacuuming office corridors, spoon-feeding the elderly. They serve tea, greet company guests and chatter away at public technology displays. Now startups are marching out robotic home helpers.
They aren’t all humanoid. The Paro is a furry robot seal fitted with sensors beneath its fur and whiskers, designed to comfort the lonely, opening and closing its eyes and moving its flippers.
For Japan, the robotics revolution is an imperative. With more than a fifth of the population 65 or older, the country is banking on robots to replenish the work force and care for the elderly.
In the past several years, the government has funded a plethora of robotics-related efforts, including some $42 million for the first phase of a humanoid robotics project, and $10 million a year between 2006 and 2010 to develop key robot technologies.
The government estimates the industry could surge from about $5.2 billion in 2006 to $26 billion in 2010 and nearly $70 billion by 2025.
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Japanese are also more accepting of robots because the native Shinto religion often blurs boundaries between the animate and inanimate, experts say. To the Japanese psyche, the idea of a humanoid robot with feelings doesn’t feel as creepy—or as threatening—as it might do in other cultures.
Still, Japan faces a vast challenge in making the leap—commercially and culturally—from toys, gimmicks and the experimental robots churned out by labs like Takeno’s to full-blown human replacements that ordinary people can afford and use safely.
“People are still asking whether people really want robots running around their homes, and folding their clothes,” said Damian Thong, senior technology analyst at Macquarie Bank in Tokyo.
“But then again, Japan’s the only country in the world where everyone has an electric toilet,” he said. “We could be looking at a robotics revolution.”
That revolution has been going on quietly for some time.
Japan is already an industrial robot powerhouse. Over 370,000 robots worked at factories across Japan in 2005, about 40 percent of the global total and 32 robots for every 1,000 Japanese manufacturing employees, according to a recent report by Macquarie, which had no numbers from subsequent years.
And they won’t be claiming overtime or drawing pensions when they’re retired.
“The cost of machinery is going down, while labor costs are rising,” said Eimei Onaga, CEO of Innovation Matrix Inc., a company that distributes Japanese robotics technology in the U.S. “Soon, robots could even replace low-cost workers at small firms, greatly boosting productivity.”
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A single robot can replace about 10 employees, the roadmap assumes—meaning Japan’s future million-robot army of workers could take the place of 10 million humans. That’s about 15 percent of the current work force.
“Robots are the cornerstone of Japan’s international competitiveness,” Shunichi Uchiyama, the Trade Ministry’s chief of manufacturing industry policy, said at a recent seminar. “We expect robotics technology to enter even more sectors going forward.”
Meanwhile, localities looking to boost regional industry clusters have seized on robotics technology as a way to spur advances in other fields.
Robotic technology is used to build more complex cars, for instance, and surgical equipment.
The logical next step is robots in everyday life.
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For all its research, Japan has yet to come up with a commercially successful consumer robot. Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Ltd. failed to sell even one of its pricey toddler-sized Wakamaru robots, launched in 2003 as domestic helpers.
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One of the only commercially successful consumer robots so far is made by an American company, iRobot Corp. The Roomba vacuum cleaner robot is self-propelled and can clean rooms without supervision.
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(Posted on March 3, 2008)
Comments
Well, perhaps this will keep out all of the White, latino, turkish, brazilian, etc. non-Black gaijin that go to Japan for easy lays…
Posted by OccasionalLurker at 7:09 PM on March 3
Even disregarding the important issue of importing unassimilable immigrants, surely it is far better to create a robot to do menial tasks and thereby free citizens to do more productive or sophisticated work?
It’s high time the white world took this up rather than continuously importing Third Worlders.
Posted by Ed at 7:16 PM on March 3
I have made the mechanization point several times when discussions come up about the “huge” need for foreign nationals to be invading modern nations—like this one. Especially foreing nationals who are hostile to the traditional European popualtion.
Posted by Bobby at 7:20 PM on March 3
Ya know, I have to hand it to the Japanese. Their birthrate is as bad or worse than ours, yet they have avoided an infusion of third world migrants into their midsts. I have been there many times and always came away impressed.
If anyone can pull this off it’s the Japanese.
Posted by stringtheory at 7:41 PM on March 3
Smart folks .While we make the same mistake over again . We brought in the African for cheap labor with the industrial revolution on the horizon and now we do the same thing with third worlders with the robotic revolution on the horizon . We never learn . And already the third worlders and/or their children are displacing Americans on the job whose families have been here since the 1600s, 1700s and 1800s . And who do our leaders identify with ? The third worlders .
Posted by at 8:35 PM on March 3
There is nothing wrong with declining populations (as long as they are not replaced by ethnic immigration). A declining population brings numerous economic, social, and environmental benefits. Just to name a few: lower taxes, uncrowded roads, shorter commutes, lower house prices - more quiet, more peace, more nature. Of course, the economy and work force must adjust. For example, there will be less of a need for police, teachers, prison guards, welfare administrators, etc., and more need for health care workers.
These are simple problems to solve, and one way to solve them is by new technology, including robots. Long after the USA turns into a giant overpopulated, polluted, poverty bound mass of squabbling ethnic tribes, the Japanese will still retain their unique culture, dignity, and high standard of living. I greatly admire them.
Posted by at 9:48 PM on March 3
Maybe these robots can take the place of illegal aliens?
Posted by at 10:15 PM on March 3
“Well, perhaps this will keep out all of the White, latino, turkish, brazilian, etc. non-Black gaijin that go to Japan for easy lays…”
If only America could have the same advantage.
Posted by at 10:22 PM on March 3
What’s this? The Japanese aren’t importing primitive, violent and disease ridden third world people to “save” their nation? Maybe they could use some rioting Muslims who wish to live under sharia law. They really don’t know what they’re missing and hopefully they’ll come to their senses soon and take their cue from the raceless and decadent Europeans and Americans.
Actually it is we who should learn from the Japanese.
Posted by Super Dave at 10:26 PM on March 3
“Even disregarding the important issue of importing unassimilable immigrants, surely it is far better to create a robot to do menial tasks and thereby free citizens to do more productive or sophisticated work?”
I believe this was the idea behind technology in the first place. But what are people doing with the time saved from the use of labor-saving devices? Are they spending it going to the opera, the symphony, and reading classical literature in book clubs? What a huge mistake was the proliferation of the benefits of technology to the masses! Make the lazy louts work! Much better for them than to ipod with their disgusting ‘music’ and while away the day with internet porn.
De Gobineau was also a prophet in this respect: all civilization is aristocratic, even within the better races. And the lesser races have nary a shred of civilization at all. Burn it all down and start from scratch again with lords and commoners, says I. Those Amish are on to something.
Posted by white, but not unjustly proud at 11:07 PM on March 3
Robots do the work Japanese won’t do.
It’s because Japan has almost no immigration, so the lbor shortages, if any, have to be remedied with thechnology.
In other words, the migrating hordes from Mexico and other Thir World countries are thwarting progress in technology and manufacturing. It’s cheaper in the U.S. to hire them then to spend money on development and employment of robotic technology.
One more reason to stop the mass migration from these countries and to send back as many as possible of those already here back to the countries of their ancestors.
Posted by A Reader at 12:21 AM on March 4
stringtheory
The “low birthrates = need for high immigration” is a canard. Every day the Japanese give proof of this lie to the world.
Posted by at 12:21 AM on March 4
Well, the AP is only repeating what Jared Taylor and others have already said. Perhaps they will someday mention the core reason in japanese preference for technology over labor, and hopefully they will not screech from behind their keypads when they broach the R-word.
Posted by PBL at 2:18 AM on March 4
If this article sets off another Northeast Asian/White creativity and innovation debate/harangue, I’m going to kick something.
Posted by at 2:36 AM on March 4
Robots are the only answer to competing with very low wage countries.
When the illegal aliens were thrown out of the US in the 1960’s the California farming community mechanized and the price of produce went DOWN. That would happen again if robots were used
today instead of illegal aliens and temporary farm workers on visas.
Posted by Oldman at 8:50 AM on March 4
On the discussion of declining populations , it should be remembered that we fought WW2 with a population of only 126 million . I entered the service in ‘71 when we had just over 200 million , by the mid or late seventies the U.S. had attained zero population growth .What this means is that in the last thirty years or so we’ve picked up another 100 million , almost all of them legal and illegal immigrants . With a prediction that by 2050 we will have 400 or 500 million . Are we sure this is what we want ?
Posted by at 10:44 AM on March 4
It is clear that the importation of blacks during the 18th and 19th centuries was a terrible mistake. Here in the 21st century we are still trying unsuccessfully to assimilate them into America as equal citizens.
During their time as slaves they did the jobs Americans wouldn’t do for little more than food and housing. Their legal status was unclear (in some states they have protected status, others not) so they had no legal recourse to the courts. A war was fought over their final status with the Dems wanting to keep them as guest workers and Republicans wanting to give them amnesty. Their real alligence is to their racial heritage.
One hundred and forty three years after the issue was settled, they still do not consider themselves Americans.
Here it is in the 21st century and we are bringing in Hispanic workers to do jobs Americans won’t do for little more than food and housing. Their legal status is unclear (Some states grant them protected status, others not) so they have no legal recourse to the courts. The Dems want to keep them as guest workers and the Republicans want to give them amnesty. Their real alligence is to their racial heritage.
Must we repeat the mistakes of the past. SEND THEM BACK.
Posted by Tanjuu-do at 12:36 PM on March 4
My wife thinks this is just because the men there want “Sailor Moon” sex robots who look as if they are 11 years old.
Posted by Michael C. Scott at 12:46 PM on March 4
Strangely enough, as opposed to welfare as I am now, if machines really do replace workers all throughout society, I would consider welfare the only just solution. Technology was not meant to wipe out 90% of the human population as ‘redundancies.’ It’s in order to improve all our lives. I just hope we have the right ethics at the time these inventions start happening.
Posted by Diamed at 1:58 PM on March 4
Off the topic of technology vs. labor, there are a few things that strike me as particularly odd and even borderline disturbing in this article.
“To live among people, robots need to handle complex social tasks,” said project leader Junichi Takeno of Meiji University. “Robots will need to work with emotions, to understand and eventually feel them.
First off, robots do not “live among people.” They do not “live” at all. They are lifeless objects. Tools, nothing more. There is a real difference between “living,” and “operating.” To hear a man who must possess great intelligence fail to make this distinction, even in an offhand remark, strikes me as odd.
Secondly, how could making machines that feel emotions of any kind possibly be a good or productive thing? Isn’t half the advantage of machines derived from the very fact that they don’t have feelings? I can’t see how adding such a variable into the mix could be useful. How helpful was it to make C-3PO a whining, brown-nosing wimp?
I don’t know about you, but I don’t want my laptop refusing to open my files when I need them because it’s still upset that I was checking out that younger, sleeker, and much much thinner Airbook at the Mac store the other day.
The Paro is a furry robot seal fitted with sensors beneath its fur and whiskers, designed to comfort the lonely, opening and closing its eyes and moving its flippers.
I’m sorry, but this is just lame. Not the robot, but the person who is seeking comfort and companionship from it. It’s bad enough there are so many emotionally deficient people projecting their emotional baggage onto pets and looking to them to be a substitute for human companionship or family (I say this as the loving owner of four totally awesome dogs and one seriously badass cat), but now machines?
I suppose in a way it’s better, since robots have no psyche of their own to ruin, not even the minimal type possessed by a dog. Still, the whole notion reeks of some serious psychological disarray. I’m not saying they shouldn’t make the robot seal, or the robot dog or cat or moose or even the robot lover (I’ll take the Jolie ‘02 Gone-in-Sixty-Seconds special, please), but you’d have to wonder about anyone who would buy this item for the purpose stated in the article.
Robots are already taken for granted in Japanese factories, so much so that they are sometimes welcomed on their first day at work with Shinto religious ceremonies.
OK, now that is just creepy. My big all-in-one vacuum cleaner is a pretty cool machine, and quite useful, but I’m not having it baptized, confirmed, or taking it for its First Communion.
Posted by BW Sam at 6:19 PM on March 4
To BW Sam:
I have to credit the Japanese using robots to do their menial tasks. But, how long will it be until the United Nations decides that the robots are scientient beings, and should be accorded rights that any human is entitled to? Think it won’t happen? Look at how some people regard housepets.
This article and your post bring to mind an episode of “Star Trek: The Next Generation”, which dealt with whether certain machines are scientient beings. A scientist b rought aboard the Enterprise, three machines that she created to be used as mining tools, to extract ore. These machines did resemble R2D2. Lt. Dta began tgo think these machines, called “exocomps”, were alive when they refused to perform a dangerous task. One of these exocomps “sacrificed” itself to save Picard and Laforge, when they were caught aboard a mining site that was being flooded with radiation. The scientist still felt they were tools, but promised Data that she would study them some more, and wouldn’t use them in mining.
Why doesn’t Germany explore the use of robotic labor, instead of relying on Turks to work at their auto plants? I could never figure out why they continued to employ Turks, instead of hiring Eastern Germans to work at their plants, after reunification. After all, the East had high unemployment rates.
Posted by Soprano Fan at 1:43 AM on March 5
My wife thinks this is just because the men there want “Sailor Moon” sex robots who look as if they are 11 years old.
Posted by Michael C. Scott at 12:46 PM on March 4
Herr Scott, I wouldn’t put it past them…
The japanese men probably need the release; as you are proof, the common japanese girl is running off with the non-Black foreigner.
Posted by OccasionalLurker at 6:35 AM on March 5
Just look - when Japan, South Korea were poor and backward, people from these countries could come to Western countries to live, work and study. Now when they became rich, they won’t let nobody live and work there. They are racist and intolerant.
Posted by Polish immigrant in Ireland at 3:58 PM on March 5
Pretty smart; robots don’t drive drunk, they don’t rape underage girls, they don’t have huge welfare families, and they don’t urinate on sidewalks while “looking for work.”
Posted by Michael C. Scott at 4:15 PM on March 5
“Just look - when Japan, South Korea were poor and backward, people from these countries could come to Western countries to live, work and study. Now when they became rich, they won’t let nobody live and work there. They are racist and intolerant.”
I’m not Korean but I know that S. Korea has imported a lot of foreign workers nowadays. and I remember the Korean guy saying that there are muslim mosques being built in Korea nowadays to accommodate the muslim workers
Posted by Pale light in Penn at 2:17 PM on March 6
Japan may have temporarily been poor, Pale Light From Penn, but Japan was never backward. In the mid-1800s, it was the wealthiest (and least-free) self-governing country in the world.
Posted by Michael C. Scott at 12:27 PM on March 7
Pale light, I’ve heard the same thing. In fact, Japan imports a lot of foreigners too. Of course, they do not import Blacks, but there are plenty of indians and middle easterners (as well as Whites and latinos of course). Many japanese women actually like these foreigners too. No offense to anyone, but many japanese women are known as “Yellow Cabs” since they are easy to ride unless you are Black (just like the yellow cabs in NY).
The only difference is that foreigners in japan are generally treated as permanent guests and are never considered full citizens.
Posted by OccasionalLurker at 12:55 PM on March 7
man look at this article
“In addition to its highly advanced IT infrastructure, the government is now beginning to invest in the robotics industry. With the aim of becoming the “World’s Number 1 Robotics Nation” by 2025, there are plans to put one robot in every household by 2020. [5][6] There are other ambitious plans to expand or create other sectors of the economy, including the financial, biotechnology, aerospace and entertainment industries.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Economy_of_South_Korea
Posted by at 6:27 PM on March 7
Wow, I am impressed by the on-going discussion here that is so lacking in B2B blogs. Refreshing!
Posted by Hank at 6:34 PM on March 10
I don’t want people to get carried away here. It seems that when articles like this pop up, there is some false consensus that the Japanese are surpassing us in technology. They aren’t. They are only utilizing it in different ways. The West puts a great deal of money into robotic research. We use it for military purposes as well as up on the International Space Station. The Japanese are better at utilizing technology and making it more widespread within their society. But it is idiotic to imply that they are more capable of PRODUCING it than we are.
It seems that ever since Jared Taylor wrote that articel about Japan recently, too many people are getting carried away with this false notion of Japanese superiority in innovation. First of all, Jared’s main point was that the Japanese are more productive than us because they are more homogenous. In fact, he brought up more than once the obvious point that it is not as if white people are not capable of producing the same societies. And it should be obvious to everyone that most science and technology has historically come out of the West.
“Japan may have temporarily been poor, Pale Light From Penn, but Japan was never backward. In the mid-1800s, it was the wealthiest (and least-free) self-governing country in the world.”
What do you mean? Japan wouldn’t be where it is now had it not learned Western science and technology from the West. In the mid-1800s it was still behind the West.
Posted by Courtney at 10:02 PM on March 11
“The japanese men probably need the release; as you are proof, the common japanese girl is running off with the non-Black foreigner.”
Actually 99.4% of Japanese women are with Japanese men and the most common “foreign” nationality they marry is Korean. Chinese are fifth. Japanese women don’t like you, just the ones that specifically cruise Roppongi for sex.
Posted by observer at 12:27 AM on March 12
“Actually 99.4% of Japanese women are with Japanese men and the most common “foreign” nationality they marry is Korean. Chinese are fifth. Japanese women don’t like you, just the ones that specifically cruise Roppongi for sex.”
Most white men don’t like Japanese women either. Only the ones who are insecure date Asian women.
Posted by Courtney at 1:45 PM on March 12