Word: japanize
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Nissan's new zero-emissions electric vehicle is a quiet car with a noisy message. During an Aug. 2 unveiling at the company's new headquarters in Yokohama, Nissan CEO Carlos Ghosn drove the Leaf, a four-door hatchback, onto the main stage with Japan's former Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi in the passenger seat and the mayor of Yokohama and the governor of Kanagawa prefecture sitting in the back. The point was loud and clear: Nissan, which is investing heavily not just in electric-car development but also in infrastructure like charging stations, has politicians on board...
...Japan hopes this new robotic army could be part of the answer to an ever-declining birthrate and shrinking workforce in a country famously wary of opening its shores to immigrants. Foreign-born residents make up less than 2% of the country's total population, compared to 12% in the U.S. Although dependent on the type of industry, one robot can replace several workers, music to the ears of many government officials who know that the nation's declining work force will weigh heavily on future pension and health care programs...
...while Tokyo's major investment goal may be practical, robotics is also prestigious, giving Japan's big technology companies a global showcase for their cutting-edge research capabilities. Honda devoted millions of dollars towards the development of its first walking humanoid ASIMO "with no hope of direct commercial success," says Noel Sharkey, a robotics professor at the University of Sheffield. The exercise both "shows that they are technological leaders," Sharkey says, and gives Honda a chance to "reward the very best engineers in the company by placing them on the ASIMO team." (Read about robots in the U.S. army...
...After all, this is the land where salarymen pour over comic books on their way to work and where stay-at-home moms are also videogame afficionados. In many ways, robotics combines two of Japan's biggest cultural crushes: technology and animation. Some experts say the roots of the national love of robotics are in Japan's Shinto religion, which blurs the line between the inanimate and animate and in which followers believe that all things, including objects, can possess living spirits. "Robots have a long and friendly history in Japan, and humanoid robots are considered to be living things...
...Beyond large humanoid robots or industrial ones, Japanese researchers have also created a number of consumer-friendly inventions made for fun or therapy, like pet seals and robot chef that can whip up pancakes. But no matter how clever or cuddly, even in Japan commercial robots have a serious flaw: their price. Consumers balk at their heavy price tags, which typically run into the thousands. Sony's AIBO robotic dog, which cost $2,000 per pup, opened to much fanfare only to be cut in 2006, seven years after its introduction...