Word: nagoya
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Meet the latest in Japanese robotica: a droid that cares ... for old people. A team of scientists at Riken's biomimetic-control research center in Nagoya has developed RI-MAN (for Robot Interacting with Human) to look after the elderly. Standing 5-ft. 2-in. tall, the robot can hoist 77 lbs; its 320 pressure sensors and soft silicone skin allow the robot to safely carry a human body. RI-MAN can also pinpoint where sound is coming from and "smell" eight scents--including urine, which signals "diaper change." But RI-MAN needs a brainpower boost before it's ready...
...hira-hira, a word that describes the falling of a leaf, gentle and twisting. Radar now placed the plane at 21,860 ft., near the altitude its crew had requested. About three minutes later, Tokyo told the crew where the plane was: "You are now 72 nautical miles from Nagoya. Do you want to land at Nagoya?" A coastal city, Nagoya is 160 miles southwest of Tokyo. But the crew wished to get back to Haneda. The aircraft was now climbing again, back to 24,500 ft., and slowing only slightly...
...secret to Nagoya's success: the region excels at monozukuri-"making things." Around here you will quickly be disabused of the notion that it is impossible for Japanese manufacturers to compete against China's low labor costs. Fully one-third of the region's economy is tied to manufacturing, among the highest rates in the nation. China and Korea still cannot match many of the design and process-improvement techniques that are invented and perfected here, neither can they produce the high-end, R&D-heavy, design-intensive products like capital equipment, aerospace equipment and industrial ceramics that are Nagoya...
...throughout Japan as kenjitsu (rock solid). Compared with residents of Osaka, where personal and corporate bankruptcy rates are among the highest in the nation, Nagoyans are frugal. Local companies resisted making foolish bets during the bubble years, hence avoiding most of the damage from the crash. To this day, Nagoya companies sport some of the lowest debt loads in the country...
...headed by former Toyota executive Yukihisa Hirano and half funded by the private sector, was almost $1 billion under budget when it opened last month. Combined with the World Expo, it may help local leaders to build an international profile to match its rising domestic status. But will that "Nagoya Gal" look play abroad...