Prime Minister Shinzo Abe calls robots a “pillar” of his efforts to revive Japan’s stalled economy and deal with the country’s shrinking, aging population. And he’s not just talking about industrial robots like the ones that powered Japan’s rise to auto-manufacturing dominance in the 1980s.
Japanese researchers have created humanoid robots that can walk and run, and some with faces that mimic emotions with startling accuracy. Abe foresees robots helping out in nursing homes and hotels. Others, humanoid or not, could respond to disasters like the 2011 meltdown at the Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear plant. It is a growth industry, he says, that Japan should lead.
“The adoption of robots tailored to the individual needs of each workplace is without a doubt a major trump card that will drive our local economies,” Abe said in September, at the first meeting of a Robot Revolution Realization Council, which he created to boost the industry.
The obsession with robots — particularly humanoid ones — almost seems quaint. In an era in which phones can talk and cars park themselves, who needs the Jetsons’ robot maid?
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