In part five of Techno Tokyo, NY1's two-week, 10-part series looking at what's hot in technology in Japan, Adam Balkin explains why during so much of his trip over there, he was surrounded by robots.
Certain sections of Japan are history frozen in time. But true Japanese culture relies heavily on embracing the future and change. Which is why in certain pockets of the country, you might wonder whether robots may soon start to equal humans in number.
So what is it with Japan's seemingly robot fetish? Well, there are several reasons robots flourish here. First off, a government agency called NEDO, the New Energy and Industrial Technology Development Organization, offers up lots of grant money to anyone in robot development.
"It has been our main concern to promote industrial robots and that has reached a good level but not in domestic or social fields," says NEDO's Tetsuya Yamamoto. "So now we are trying to put more money and energy and technology into robots that help ordinary people in their daily lives
And an idea that may seem foreign, if not outright crazy to capitalist Americans, any developer that accepts NEDO money must agree to share any new developments with others Japanese researchers, even potential competitors.
"NEDO funded robots are actually developed by private corporations and universities but we permit them to own the know-how and patents on their creations. They are also allowed to sell and make money on their robots," says Yamamoto. "But robots are very difficult to develop by individual corporations, it requires help. So we encourage them to share the knowledge to help Japanese industry as a whole move forward."
While it may seem that some of these robots may steal jobs from actual people, NEDO says in no way is that the case. In fact, it says because the youngest generation of Japan is shrinking for several sociological reasons, being at the forefront of robotic technology is almost a necessity for this country.
"Like other countries, the senior citizen population in Japan is growing disproportionately larger compared to young people, so robots will be needed to offer proper health care or assist at home," says Yamamoto. "And because the population of the younger generation is declining, robots are needed to fill the gaps in the labor shortage."
And NEDO says its goals include having some sort of robot or robots that genuinely help with housework within the next five years. They want to have more sophisticated robots by 2020 or 2030 that are fully integrated into society helping with everyday social needs.
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