Japan is known as the robot capital of the world. The country’s technological advancements have managed to revolutionise almost every digital space across the globe. Now, a research team in Osaka has managed to develop a humanoid robot that has almost eerie similarities to the country’s Digital Minister Taro Kono.
The developers of the 175-centimetre-tall android claim that its body movement is almost human-like. Kono is also seemingly impressed and jokes about how he will like to take his alter-ego to a budget committee meeting.
“With parliamentary approval, I would let him attend a budget committee meeting.”
The main aim of developing such robots is to examine if social activities can be conducted remotely in the country which focuses a lot on individual privacy.
As reported by WION, last year in December, a local government in Japan launched a similar ground-breaking programme to assist people who are socially isolated.
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A green-eyed, nine-inch-tall robot served as people’s alter egos. The robot, named OriHime was showcased and developers claimed that it can be used to assist those who are afraid of social contact.
Read more: ‘Avatar’ in real life? Japan’s alter-ego robots for people with social anxiety
To the rest of the world, it might look weird, but in Japan, it’s normal as humanoids are pretty common.
A report published by the International Federation of Robotics (IFR) in March this year revealed that Japan is the world’s number one industrial robot manufacturer, delivering 45 per cent of the global supply.
As per the report, Japan’s robot suppliers have increased their production capacity considerably. Their export ratio rose to 78 per cent in 2020 and at that time 136,069 industrial robots were shipped.
Read more: In Japan, humanoids are pretty common
(With inputs from agencies)
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