What the world can learn from Japan’s robots | Editor’s Picks - BBC News

Japan is changing: a rapidly ageing society, a record-breaking influx of visitors from overseas, and more robots than ever. That's where the country's young people come in. Gen J, a new series by BBC Worklife, keeps you up to speed on how the nation's next generation is shaping the Japan of tomorrow. 

Additional reporting by Yoko Ishitani and Mari Murakami.

---

Japan is rolling out robots in nursing homes, offices and schools as its population ages and workforce shrinks. What can it teach other countries facing the same problems? 

This police robot acts as eyes and ears for human officers in a different room. Countries like China and South Korea have expressed interest in such tech
Photo: Bryan Lufkin

At a sleek office building in Shinagawa, Tokyo, workers are strolling in and out for lunch. As they walk through the glass doors, they pass two security guards, each dutifully flanking the passage in stern silence. It all seems pretty unremarkable, until you realise one of those security guards is a robot.

Standing up to five feet tall with wheels and a blue police cap, “his” name is Ugo. His battery lasts up to half a work day, and every two hours he’ll do a routine patrol around the building – even summoning lifts by pushing the call button himself. His digital “face” – which usually displays two big blue cartoony eyes – is replaced with the Japanese text for “on duty”.

“It’s important for the robot to feel cute, so you’re not intimidated,” says Ken Matsui, CEO of Mira Robotics, the start-up behind Ugo. Right now, the police bot – whose built-in camera allows guards downstairs to see things from the robot’s point of view – is one of only two prototypes in the country. But Matsui says companies in China and South Korea are interested in his company's work, which also includes cleaning robots for use in houses and schools...

Hiroshi Ishiguro, the Osaka University roboticist, says we’ll see other cute, communicative robots in places like hotel rooms or restaurants (where touch-screen menus are already commonplace in Japan) to assist guests in other languages. Meanwhile, government initiatives continue: last year, robots began to be rolled out in 500 classrooms across Japan to help teach English after a 250m yen ($2.3m) investment from the Education Ministry.

That could, in turn, help Japan’s younger generation grow up at ease with robots in a variety of environments. Ishiguro believes that they will integrate into our lives the same way smartphones did a decade ago. “Not just Japan will have more robots, but the whole world,” he predicts.
Read more... 

Source: BBC News