Japan: Robot Nation

So they'd rather dump billions into R&D on autonomous robots rather than engage in some good old fashioned boot knockin' to solve their problem?

Maybe Japan should collapse.

Japan should focus on marketing towards its citizens on the benefits of creating and having a family. In addition, they should recognize its immigrants equally as any citizen and as a vital source of fulfilling the population gap. Those are my two cents(sense) to this very insightful documentary.

really? In what way would this be a good thing?

i wonder if this will happen in america. it might be a good thing.

I believe Japan will find some other means of increasing their population other than robots. I think the main concern this video/report brings out is the racism found in Japan. Racism towards foreigners is probably a huge problem in Japan because foreigners will solve the problem of low birth rates. An example of where this type of theory has worked in is Canada. In Canada the birth rate is low (not as low as Japans) but they still manage to have a good economy and a high population. The reason why is simple, immigrants and foreigners. Canada is a very diverse country with tons of people from all over the world and they manage to get along; why cant Japan do the same?
Japan needs to first get control over their stereotypical views and make way for the future.

hahahahahahahaha..... japanese men have turned into bitches!!!!!

Annica are you talking about hiroshi ishiguro?

What's the music at the end of the video?

I watched this on Xmas day (2009). Yeah, a year after it originally aired. Great documentary. I was saddened and shocked to learn Japan is an intensely racist nation. I recently purchased a book called Shutting Out The Sun, which attempts to understand Japan's current collective psychological dysfunction.. I mean, I know this culture is going through something... unique. Yet, now after watching this, I'm less sympathetic. At least they still have some great commentary coming in the form of Sion Sono's films that try to explain this tragic state of affairs. And "Ikiru" is still my 2nd fave film of all time. But again, I am really upset that the Japanese are so prejudiced and would treat foreigners as 2nd class citizens. This is why the Boston Red Sox took nearly a hundred years to finally win the World Series: They were the last MLB team to have any black players.

This is a very interesting story that really caught my attention. It was both entertaining and very very insightful. The same problem is going on in other Asian countries, such as Hong Kong, where most couples aren't even marrying, or the couples who are married refuse to have children. The couples who do not have children use pets as substitutes, probably because it's a lot easier to take care and the idea of child-bearing and childcare is way too stressful for them. I can definitely see a trend coming about, and it's very startling.

What I can infer from this is that many of these cultures, are still retaining a youthful perspective on things. Many of them don't really want to go through the trouble of starting a family, settling down, etc., and are paying a hefty price because of it.

i cant help but think of the difference betweeen here(usa) and japan in terms of the robot and sex. japan is not having sex or kids and uses human like robots, in the U.S. people are having dare I say too much sex and kids and im pretty sure that if a human-robot came in the U.S. the first question would be" can i have sex with it?" so i think
JAPAN=MONEY AND FREEDOM
.....Hmmm whats the name of that movie>> Idiocracy....Japanese ppl should watch this

thank you, adam

I fear that Adam's problem as a host was that he was too masculine looking. Back in Canada, my girlfriends (and some of my male friends) would eat him for breakfast. But those hosts in Japan look like "grass eaters" to me.

The only thing you have seen is a slanted liberal view of Japan. Japanese are nationalists and believe in borders, language, and culture. The US has a huge problem right now because they don't uphold any of those three. Other countries in Europe are having the same problems.

I worked and lived in Japan for two years as a "Japanese Employee". I very rarely experienced any racism. The one time I did it was because they did not allow foreigners into a pachinko parlor. Big deal. The rest of the people treated me no different than Americans do. Japan had a big ex-pat scene which were filled with people who refused to integrate into Japanese society and instead spent their time moaning about it. Japanese people do not like people who make no effort to integrate and rightly so.

i was looking for the robot doc, but found one about 'japanese racist' tendencies. Wow, I had inclinations of the thought, but now I've seen it with my own eyes. This leads me to asking why has nothing changed since wwII when Japan then, made some bad choices that led to their siding with the axis. I understand that back then, 'foreigners' including the chinese were thought of by the population at large, as 'subhuman'. Now 50 years later I see that they have not made much social progress, except that they've made robots that will do and act as they wish. The only post apocalyptic society that appears to be going down the road that seems to be assigned to such category, that being, segmented, sad and lonely. That's unfortunate, very unfortunate indeed.

TB

this was very eye opening. I never knew how japan was turning out. to bad its kind of scary, japan pritty much promotes peace, but they do not like immigration? good facts although, it dose bring violance, but do we have to keep up with there standards? japans taking over!

Hell,
I wanna live in Japan!!

Lose weight AND excessive masturbation?!?! Sign me up!

Whenever I find myself trapped somewhere and need something to watch, this is the pod I pull up. This whole topic is endlessly fascinating, and could've made for a whole series of reports. The male hosts, especially, were something I'd love to see more about, partly out of curiosity, and partly because of career envy.

dang. i cant believe the openess of the society. yet they give foreigners less rights. but at least they can become japanese.

This is quite amazing and frightening. In a way it seems that these robots will help aide in the preserving of the population and in turn the purity of the culture and society. However, one must wonder, if the robots take all the jobs that are deemed as manual labor or rudimentary, will the society at large be preserved? Would there only be just the high class if this takes affect?

El3azzi.. I look forward to that.

it is truly incredible what we humans can do . . .

but to be real, the robot situation is really creepy.

yet cool..

hmm

This is outstanding journalism. I've read a lot about robotics in Japan, but also about host bars' increasing popularity with career women, the touchy reality of Japanese xenophobia, and most recently, about "herbivores" -- that's the cultural trend of young Japanese men being less and less concerned with sex. This piece really brought all those seemingly disparate cultural trends to a very logical, well reasoned conclusion. Brilliant.

Moving on: I can't say I am surprised by trends there, and I wonder if we aren't ourselves veering toward the same conclusions (which, now that I'm finally there, I guess is the piece's point). The United States has been more sly about its promotion of marriage and babymaking, but we have a lot of career women, too, who don't have time to date (that's a huge selling point for sites like Match and eHarmony). And while we don't have the same widely reported trends of agoraphobia, maybe any city dweller can sympathize with that kind of alienation. We're a long way from running out of employees in the workforce and needing to replace them with cheap robotic help, but we are as impressed with automation as the Japanese are. Moreover, we culturally are uncomfortably close to rejecting human companionship and requiring electronic or digital surrogates (see also my semi-active current.com account).

In the video, a robotics scientist mentions "Astro Boy" and that icon's mission to help humankind. Astro Boy's creater, Osamu Tezuka -- himself a doctor -- wrote that character in the aftermath of WWII, during which technological and scientific advances were used by all factions to terrorize humankind. Rather than being disheartened, Tezuka willfully sought hope, and he anticipated robotics' benevolent uses and a brighter future.

And certainly these humanitarian goals with robotics are all very noble, but of course -- maybe given my cultural differences -- these methods scream "uncanny valley" to me. There is nothing so terrifying and lonely as this degree of artifice.

P.S. The bit with the plush robot seal made me realize how "Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep" Furbys and Tamagotchis really are.

Amazing and true. I live in Japan and have to deal with insanely illogical and annoying paradoxes everyday. But I still love Japan! It`s extreme love hate as a foreigner.

It`s the old dinosaur generation that are opposed to change. The younger generation will have no problems at all. They learn English in school sometimes from the age of 6 or 7 and are interested in foreign countries. I am a school teacher, I am witnessing a new generation.

Also, Adam is hot!

I could be wrong here but even if they do implement robots to take over or assist in mundane daily tasks aren't they going to need a workforce to maintain the upkeep on the machines? We all know that the life span of technology is very short and I wonder how quickly they would breakdown from daily use/abuse etc...

Wow, I never thought that Japan would start depopulating...
-Seeing that robot reminded me of the movie "Irobots" o.o

this is an impressive piece. fascinating, really.

I really appreciated the background or possible reasons of how they've reached this huge interest for human-like robots.
And I could understand why women choose to be more independent but the lack of human contact is just incredible! I can’t really see robots fulfilling that need for human touch. What these robots are capable of doing is impressive, no doubt, but I would not be complete or comfortable without true human emotion because programmed emotions are still just programmed. For a culture built on Shinto faith, where everything has a spirit, it seems like it might just work though.

Overall, great pod.
Good Job! :)

It seems to me like Japan is too dependent on technology nowadays rather than interacting with other people.
Using a vending machine to order your meal... really? A robot nation would be incredibly freaky. I'd hate to see a country turn lazy with machines doing all the work for them. If they were to do something like that the people would have no work ethic and contribute nothing to the economy and would probably fall behind in education, leaving people to be a bunch of blubbering idiots cared for by a robot.

i know wha their problem is... their men look like women. problem solved.

ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh, uncanny valley!!!

this is a very informative piece and i appreciate the time you took for it.

but can i say..."battlestar galactica" in real life? the robots are a bit creepy for the notes you mentioned in the documentary.

i almost think it's dangerous to try and put human nature into that of a machine -- you might say that japanese could gain a sense of "someone else there"- but it's still not completely real and the way that two human souls connect will never fill their void. however based ONLY on your piece, i wonder if they've become so technilogically focused that they now see baby making as economic rather than "human."

this is interesting either way. thanks again adam.

And Adam Yamaguchi you are such a great journalist! The social context (population aging rapidly) is a superb angle, so insightful

i can never get over how freaky this all is...

That was amazing. I don't know what to respond to this except. Its hard to believe that on the other side of the world and under the same sky and sun all this is happening. At the same time it makes me wonder if the human race is coming to its climax. I understand that WWII did some damage to their society. Though I don't believe that that is the full cause that has created this effect. If you have ever watched documentaries on Japanese women they claim they no longer wish to settle with the cultures repeated path. They seek other interest in different races and migrate to other countries. As a human being I don't wish to see an entire culture dwindle to the existence of history in a text book. Though at the same time should no government force it upon the people to have children. It seems like yesterday they were becoming over populated. I hope that this technology is shared with other countries. Yet at the same time I hope that the ignorance of other countries dose not have an effect. Once again thank you ADAM to opening our eyes to whats going on around the world.

This was amazing. I had no idea that japanese births and the population were declining so rapidly.

My former co-worker is a Chinese national and said that they too are about to hit a major wall. Men outnumber women several times over and the next 2 generations will be a major test of that nations survival.
And, IMHO, the robots are cool only if not used to replace a human based social life.

A society which practices and inspires the perfection… Technological advance takes the step on the human nature...I'd never seen Japan under this angle!
I'm Japanese' animation fan...Chobit is coming soon in real life!!!!

Thanx Adam, it was very informative and interesting...and you were very sexy in your hosting suit (^__^) I would have designated you everyday!

This is a very interesting pod. I would like to see more about the robot being developed by honda. The pod showed some quick clips of the robot, but it didn't show it responding to any commands directly. Also how would these robots be used outside of the house. In other words how they know where they were going?

Racism seems to be not only a white American thing, but a world wide affliction. Japan not allowing any immigrants and allowing themselves to die out or substitute a human life with a robot is ridiculous! You cant substitute the beauty of humanity with a robot. Hmmm. Japan denying immigrants because they dont want to degrade the purity of there race...sounds an aweful lot like a certain group of faciast germans we know.

Paging commander data... I wonder if this if their culture is why they had couldnt adapt quick enough to avoid the "lost decade" and their present population issues--and hopefully why our recent increased openness will prevent ours....

more power to the japanese for reducing population with robots and not war and violence. I would like to help their work force.

always a great piece. thanks adam

I do get worried sometimes. Japanese people are known to be racisits, from personal experience I think it is just ignorance. They only believe what they are shown on TV,etc. Many I meet still believe that all blacks in Japan are rich gangsters. Like..seriously believe it. It's sad. Anti-Korean & Chinese mentality will never go away I think, just because of the Japanese occupation, etc. It may get better, but some places here in America still don't like blacks. People don't like to change. I hate it that you can't get hired if you are foreign/it takes FOREVER. Even if you speak/write. And that interracial marriage is seriously frowned upon. Halfie kids may be the new "cool thing" but they are still rare and they still get teased at school.(and Japanese-style "ijime" has got nothin' on the USA) OMG, and having darker skin tones while is seen as pretty by some, is ugly to others.
The robots, etc is cool however I do get worried. I want to talk to someone! Vending machines can be so annoying. Low human-human interaction is definately adding to the low birthrate and marriage rates. Good pod!!

This is a great documentary. A lot of very interesting issues touched on. It leaves me very curious to know more.

The replacement of teachers with robots idea scares me a lot. That will kill the personalization of education as well as one more step of socialization. And the Japanese already have a problem with the latter one. I'd say make them socialize more! And introduce to other cultures, for god's sakes!

Cool story

this was amazing.. the old people are so cute with the seal!

I never fully realized how racist Japan is until I saw this episode of Vanguard a month ago. Personally I was shocked because I have many friends that are from all around Asia including Japanese.

Of course we can't lose the Japanese, they bring some of the greatest [and weirdest] inventions!

This was crazy, i would never really think that the japanese would deny work to immigrants, but i guess i kind of understand since they might not have jobs for themselves to choose from, but i guess that's still not right either way if someone does a better job then give them the work and having them change who they are, that's unjust, but I would like to know what do they think about like white and black people, from other places then just South America. I don't want to leave out the robots, that's insane but super cool. And is the idea of the Japanese leaving the country for more space and more jobs even an option? that's it thanks.

Honestly, this situation is beginning to expose the problem with their view of foreigners, which has remained intact for a very long time. At the very least, the population crisis will force them to rethink their immigration policy, and the way they treat foreigners, and they'll be much better off for it.

Mark my words, robots aren't going to help nearly as much as some people think they will. Robots will help cushion the fall when it comes to labor, but robots cant participate in the community like humans can, especially when the market is concerned. You need consumers to support the economy, after all.

Brilliant, music at the end is...?

I enjoyed the report and enlightening. It will be very interesting to see what will become of this in 2009

this was awesome.

but strongly believe robots will never be able to surpass the capacity us as humans have to do many things such as feel.. and simply love.

Population growth is not static, don't listen to speculated future statistics...if there's one thing the human species does well is reproduce (the Japanese aren't pandas after all). These people realize that just because you can have babies doesn't mean you should. If it comes down to saving the race, they'll make it happen. So put on a jacket and collect more toys, and soon we'll all be turning Japanese! oh, and GREAT VIDEO!

We need human touch regardless of how little the population is going to be in any country.

Replacing teachers with robots is not the answer; replacing car manufacturer workers with robots has already happened..

This would be like the industrial revolution in the UK, where modern machinery took over and workers protested.. Obviously there will be less workers if the population is going down.. If Japan had a open immigration system the immigrants would be flooding in.. That's my opinion.. Simply replacing people with robots is not enough and it would make Japan even more homogenous than it already is.

I think if you ask quite a bit of Americans, Europeans (like the French in particular), Australians... hell even parts of Latin America, you will see that the immigration issue is not one merely of racism and not only found in Japan. The same thing happened here in the US when the Irish and Italians immigrated in vast numbers and now it is happening to Hispanics. People like the familiar and vast immigration isn't exactly that.

Adam looks like a very handsome male model! But then again drinking is not my thing.

Great pod.

It seems like that the Japanese hold a high opinion of their own culture

Wow! This blew my mind. This piece covered many different issues - why couples are not procreating, the equality of men and women, the influence of immigrants in Japan, technology, how the Japanese will use this technology, etc. Excellent. I am sending this to everyone I know.

The merging of humans and machines is
i n e v i t a b l e.

I guess being an independent person has a lot of drawbacks...like the destruction of human civilization.

I love how first they're saying "Japan's population is about to collapse because people are withdrawing from society..."

then it's like "Hey look, Japan made robots you can have sex with!"

PROBLEM SOLVED!...

"Wait what?"

This is a great pod, but I found that the most interesting aspect of it was the reflection on how they they treated the immigrants as well as their stance on the issue. Seems like the Japanese have a ways to go on the issue of tolerance and acceptance.

this is DOPE.. One of the best, if not the best thing I've seen on this channel. The robots are sweet, but everything works so well, from the story/writing to the hosting to the music. You took hard concepts like birthrates, and made it compelling television.
incredible shit, keep it up

That was a great pod. I live in Japan so I knew everything you were talking about. I really love it in Japan. Yes the old people are taking over and yes the dating scene is the worst but I still love alot of things about Japan. The whole pod really stirs up alot of questions in my head. When I see Japanese women with foriegners I kind of get disgusted because most of the guys are dirt bags. I had a Japanese girlfriend but it ended all ghetto style. But then I was not totally up on the Japanese lifestyle. I think the young women in Japan really hold the future of Japan. I would hate to see the culture and the people die out and turn into robots. Many Japanese women are small and cute so I can see why having kids might hurt them. I have heard a lot of people say that after marriage they stop having sex. I don't know if it is true or not. It all just seem really sad to me, because these people are survivors and after it all they have built some very beautiful places. I wish this pod was translated to Japanese so I could show my friends.

this is amazing and a little creepy at the same time. It's sad to think that the human population of such a vibrant culture is on the decline.

Wooow

As usual, another excellent Vanguard slice of journalism.
I can't help but wonder how the Japanese will be dealing with the increased number of elders in decades to come. In the past, Asian cultures have treated their seniors with a respect that the western world, the US in particular, has never fully understood or appreciated.
Will this change, over time, due to dramatic shifts in population and economies?

i would not mind a tokyo host boy

great pod all around. i felt very moved after watching it. i want to go to japan even more.

Ashibata: "@gweller- Nationalist/racist call it what you will people are resistant to that which they don’t understand. It’s as simple as that. Lack of exposure and knowledge lead to prejudice. You can’t say that the prejudice against the Japanese born Korean lady is a result of Nationalism."

Exactly what facts do you know about the law which requires them to change their last name to be a citizen which clearly shows that it is prejudism? If you are judging without facts, that is the exact definition of prejudice.

carligula said:
"Why dont you have a giant kid come out of your vagina. I think mens views of women have to change. This is no longer 1950s America."

First of all babies are 6-7 lbs, which is not "giant". If you are having children larger than this it is because you are too fat and/or eating too much while pregnant. Second, anyone can have an epidural these days which reduces the pain to about nothing. Every woman I know that has had one says they only feel pressure and not pain. You are right, this is no longer the 1950s and women don't have to have painful childbirths anymore unless they want to.

At any rate the women in Japan aren't having babies because of painful chidbirths, it is because they don't want to stay home, take care of children, and have a complex that they aren't as good as the men. They would rather go shopping and get drunk after work.

carligula said:
"Why dont you have a giant kid come out of your vagina. I think mens views of women have to change. This is no longer 1950s America."

If you think they have to change (which they should), maybe you should start first. With sexist responses like that you are contradicting your own point.

@kidsire- It’s not surprising to find that a almost completely homogeneous nation doesn’t accept other cultures. Go to any ethnically non-diverse town or area in America and you will find the same sentiment. Things that people are not familiar with, whether it be cultures, people, food, music, theory, or ideas will find resistance. People are hesistant to accept that which they don’t understand. This applies to all humans.

@Sam_the_Wizer- I agree with you, but at least it addresses one problem, lack of workforce.

@3rdarm & Adam- I agree, quite handsome.

@HaloedGriot- I agree with the fact that if women had more equality, men would be less overworked and hey maybe they would have time to procreate. Crazy idea I know. One thing I am aware of is that Japan does not generally embrace individuality in the same way the West does/can. Additionally psychological treatment/opening up to another being in a medical setting is generally not considered a solution. When these ideals are combined in the Japanese culture, gadgets, robots, and sex toys seem like a great idea. And why wouldn’t they be, the novelty, the power of preference and reliable performance make a technological acceptance pretty easy. I think the Japan-US relationship noted is less realistic. I won’t go into this, since I rather site a well versed paper or textbook than express incorrect history. I just want to say that you like most of the comments seem to have no understanding of how Japanese culture works, or how they value things. Anyway…

@J_Jammer- The reality of the situation is women in Japan don’t have equality. Maybe if they did, they wouldn’t have to view marriage as what it is. How can you get excited about being discriminated for the rest of your life. Let’s be real here. How can you have a good idea of marriage when marriage is usually not based on love or romance or whatever. It’s more for practicality. It’s hard to break such an ideal when women have historically been viewed in a closer likeness to servants than partners. And if that is an acceptable ideology how easy do you think it would be to “find the right person”?

@princesslammy1977- It’s not about being good enough. It’s about technological curiosity mixed with potential work force problems  possible solution.

@AmapolaMoreno- I completely disagree with you. Being a half Japanese, atheist, female, (yay I’m a statistic!)… I just wow… stop putting people in a box. 1) Being an atheist by definition has nothing to do with your women/men evolved differently crap. Atheism=without theism= without belief in deities. Nothing more nothing less. When you attach all that other crap to it you are just spouting your own ideas, please do not tag them with such identifying tags like “atheist.” You probably are misrepresenting your own category. Yes, women have a biology that produces hormones and chemicals to reproduce and be “maternal” this is biology and well documented science. This does not mean that all women do this nor does it mean that men are incapable of being maternal. Also this has nothing to do with atheism. Also any change of social inequality must occur from within the place when the conflict exists or no gain will occur. Just like segregation in the US or women stuck in conservative Muslim cultures, if others try to force a new standard it will just lead to backlash.

@gweller- Nationalist/racist call it what you will people are resistant to that which they don’t understand. It’s as simple as that. Lack of exposure and knowledge lead to prejudice. You can’t say that the prejudice against the Japanese born Korean lady is a result of Nationalism.

Ok, at least I addressed some things I was thinking while reading. Thanks, Adam! That was a very informative and well done pod!

Look out, anime fans - Chobits is coming to reality. o_o

Very interesting! I had no idea about the immigration troubles or the declining population, thanks for this!

After living in Japan I do not think they are racist at all. They are nationalists. I see nothing wrong with a country that has strong regulations on their border, language, and culture. I wish the USA would do the same. When I was there and talked to many ex-pats from the USA and they would constantly complain about how bad things were for them, but none of them tried to assimilate and "become Japanese". I however strongly believe in assimilating the culture you are living in and I was widely accepted by many people. I applaud them for upholding their borders, language and culture.

revealing video. with all my respect and praise to Japan's culture and science, the extent of conservatism and racism (?) is shocking.

This is excellent, I really enjoyed it. It was informative and creative.
Even though it is good that technology is advancing to make this possible I still feel and think it is sad because to me human contact interaction is important, the fact that their population is decreasing so much that it is pushing them to new heights is in part sad. It shows a debilitating weakness in their society.

This is a great video. I really gives a good inside look into Japanese lifestyle.

While Japan is far ahead of the world in Robotic technology, I don't know what this video has to do with robotics. But it's still a good video.