My paper addresses a significant shift in Japanese robotics triggered by recent changes in domestic science policy. A government program to promote military research has (re)kindled a controversy over pacifist norms within local academia and has posed the question of how to draw a sharp line between science and military. The problem of “dual use” becomes all the more crucial for robotics, especially because its products are developed as versatile apparatuses that potentially find wide-ranging applications. Using the concept of “institutionalized set use,” I analyze how Japanese roboticists cope with challenges emerging from this development.

Japan has for decades been a first-mover and pacemaker with respect to the development of humanoid and android robots [1]. In this conceptual paper, we aim to demonstrate how certain android robotic projects can be embedded and interpreted within a Japanese notion of nature, where the artificial is not opposed to nature and where conventionalized idealizations in general are cherished over original state of the latter [2]. Furthermore, we will discuss how android robots epitomize challenges to the macro and micro levels of society.

[1] J. Robertson, Robo Sapiens Japanicus: Robots, Gender, Family and the Japanese Nation, University of California Press, 2017.

[2] A. Kalland and P.J. Asquith, Japanese Perceptions of Nature - Ideals and Illusions, in: Japanese Images of Nature - Cultural Perspectives, A. Kalland and P.J. Asquith, eds., Curzon Press, Richmond, 1997, p. 36.

This paper explores the types of bodies privileged and enhanced by the makers of robotic exoskeletons and the premium placed on bipedalism. Differences and similarities, and areas of overlap, in the wearable robotics industries in Japan and the United States are explored along with comparisons of products aimed at local and global consumers. Interrogations about dominant constructions of bodies and mobility from disability rights activists provide critical perspectives on the robotic exoskeleton industry.

During the past ten years, there has been an increasing public interest in the identification and treatment of autism spectrum disorder (ASD) in Japan. Social robotics has established itself as one of the forerunners in this field, designing and building robots to elicit interaction and communication. This paper examines this trend through a critical interrogation of the meaning of “social engagement” aspired by such roboticists.

Since the beginning of the 2000s the Japanese government has developed and promoted multiple scenarios for the implementation of robotics technology into everyday life, especially but not limited to the field of elderly care. This paper discusses the methodological approach of “technology futures” research (Technikzukünfte-Forschung) and its usefulness for the analysis of intersections between robotics and society in Japan. By peering into the “black box” of how processes of science and technology construction proceed, this paper examines how those processes shape, change, and/or reproduce specific constellations of societal order and governance.