Japanese Find Robots Less Intimidating Than People 278
bik1979 writes "The Christmas issue of economist has an interesting article on 'why the Japanese want their robots to act more like humans'. The article says how people in japan are accepting robots into their daily life, more so than accepting other people. From the article: 'What seems to set Japan apart from other countries is that few Japanese are all that worried about the effects that hordes of robots might have on its citizens. Nobody seems prepared to ask awkward questions about how it might turn out. If this bold social experiment produces lots of isolated people, there will of course be an outlet for their loneliness: they can confide in their robot pets and partners. Only in Japan could this be thought less risky than having a compassionate Filipina drop by for a chat.'"
Re:compassionate Filipina? (Score:2, Informative)
The Japanese have a reputation for being prejudiced.
I think this is want the last comment is referring too, Japans xenophobia.
http://www.hrdc.net/sahrdc/hrfeatures/HRF39.htm [hrdc.net]
http://www.theage.com.au/articles/2002/11/12/1037
http://www.crnjapan.com/discrimination/en/ [crnjapan.com]
http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=31436 [ipsnews.net]
Re:Japanese lack social skills (Score:4, Informative)
Anyway, here is a blog from a American teacher in Japan, it's funny (and insightful) reading of over there:
http://outpostnine.com/editorials/teacher.html [outpostnine.com]
Re:You had me... (Score:5, Informative)
Cost of opening Japanese borders to foreigners: Zero yen. Oh yeah, and society will have to open up a little too.
As you can see, it's inevitable that the Japanese develop robots. The cost of not doing so is too high for the Japanese populous to bear, or even contemplate. Seriously, the Japanese are nice people and all, but they really insist on dividing the world into "Japan" and "everybody else" in a way that's not healthy at all. I like Japan, but they're going to have make some changes. On their current path, they're either going to end up like Europe, with a bunch of isolated and pissed off foreigners living inside their borders or like techno-Europe, with a bunch of isolated and pissed off robots living inside their borders. Or, heaven forbid, they could follow the US/Canadian model and integrate foreigners into their society, instead of isolating them and maybe the people would think of themselves as Japanese. But they might not have black hair, so scratch that idea.
Re:All Hooked Up (Score:2, Informative)
Re:compassionate Filipina? (Score:4, Informative)
shoe etiquette (Score:2, Informative)
1) Regarding difficulty of removal and donning of shoes: It really needn't be a big effort, nor should it take much more than two seconds. You don't tie and untie your shoes at each donning and removal; you simply leave them slightly loosened so that you can quickly slip them on and off. I've moved furniture and removed my shoes with my feet while entering the house so as not to sully the carpet, and this was always an effortless operation. If you think this sounds like a difficult thing to do, you probably haven't tried doing it long enough. When you live for a very short time -- like a couple/few weeks -- in a culture that requires this kind of behavior, you'll get the hang of it. I admit it's more annoying to cope with this practice in a country like the U.S., where the understanding that "you-remove-your-shoes-**here**" is seldom established. (For example, most houses and apartments in the U.S. are not built with a special area with a recessed floor near the front door where people are expected to take off their shoes.)
2) The amount of time you spend walking around on the inside floor with your shoes is irrelevant. The problem (if you do that) is that you're getting filth on the inside floor, and people/cultures with "no-shoes-**here**" policies tend not to like the idea of walking on *filth* in their socks.
3) I agree that a chair would help in cultures where the "take-your-shoes-off-**here**" policy is not widely practiced; those who live in cultures with relaxed shoe policies and who want to adopt the cleaner rule would do well to provide transitional aids like that. (It would be considerate to provide one's guests with a couple of swiveling chairs, shoehorns, footstools, and some way to steady one's self and prevent toppling.)
To sum up: I understand why you're annoyed, but trust that once you get used to it, you remove/don so quickly that you give it about as much thought (and time!) as closing the door behind you.
Re:All Hooked Up (Score:4, Informative)
"The native religion of Japan, Shinto, teaches that everything has a spirit. While many poo-poo this as a backward and strange throwback to an animastic past the west shrugged off a long time ago, this view is much more practical than is often realised. Viewing everything as a spirit that exists in relation to everything else encourages the development of a much more sensitive and context aware mentality."
Shinto is the dominant religion in Japan second only to Budhism. Only 5% of Japan's vast population is Christian or Catholic. Christmas is still celebrated by most of Japan anyway. Shinto is a ancient religion, its origins date back the Old Stone Age between 100,000 & 10,000 B.C. It ranks as one of the oldest "active" religions on Earth.
The Shinto religion has no establish code of morality like Christianity and other major religions. Its a system based more on people policing their own behavior rather than following a set of pre-written commandments (ie; The Ten Commandments). Japan in general, is one of the few civilizations on Earth that still has a widely practiced Honor-based social system. Though the social-class was outlawed long before the onset of WWII, most Japanese live by the Samurai Code (Bushido Code) which calls for ritual suicide (seppoku) as a way to redeem one's lost honor.
They are a people of extreme contrasts. On one said they are one of the most technologically advanced cultures on the planet and on the other hand they a people who still have on foot in the ancient past. They are desparately trying to keep a hold of their ancient culture and beliefs in the fact of advancing technology. I blame the Tokogawa Shojunate and the closing of Japan's boarders during this era as the reason for Japan's precieved backwardness. When Admiral Perry sailed into Tokyo Harbor in the 1800's the world was experiencing the Industrial Revolution, but Japan was frozen in time and its people lived the same way they had as if they were still in the Middle Ages. Japan had to play catchup with the rest of the world and they did so with furocious tennacity. This is why the Japanese are more open to embracing new technology faster than most Western cultures.
-Information researched from the book "Japanese Culture" from Honolulu Univerity Press.