‘The Japanese way of robotics’: Interacting ‘naturally’ with robots as a national character?

Abstract

Japan is often referred to as the ldquorobot kingdomrdquo, not only because it has the world's largest number of industrial robots but also because of its ldquorobot culturerdquo which includes robot influenced narratives (comics / manga and animation films / anime), robot toys, a general popularity of robotics research, exhibitions (e.g., EXPO 2005, ROBODEX etc.) and robot competitions. In March 2008 the popular robot cat character ldquoDoraemonrdquo was even assigned ldquoanimation cultural ambassadorrdquo by the Japanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) to promote Japanese culture worldwide. The general acceptance of robots as partners of human beings at the work place and at home is also a major argument of the Japanese government to strongly promote the use of ldquosocialrdquo robots in-and outside the factories to overcome the problems of the aging society, especially the decreasing number of Japan's workforce population. In contrary to the western image of robots as frightening machines there seems to be a different concept and attitude in Japan. However, the discourse on the acceptance of robots in Japan lacks a differentiated view of the ldquoclassicalrdquo arguments for the popularity of robots. The paper will shed a new light on this discussion and explore the ldquonegotiation characterrdquo of the creation and use of technological artifacts like robots in Japan. It also aims to initiate a discussion between the humanities and natural sciences about the influence of culture on the development of robot technology.