Japan Loves Robots, but Getting Them to Do Human Work Isn't Easy

During a trial of self-driving buses in Oita City, also in southern Japan, one bus crashed into a curb, and officials realized that autonomous vehicles were not quite ready to cope with situations like traffic jams, jaywalkers or cars running red lights. For decades, Japan has been a leader in the use of robots. It is the world's largest maker of industrial robots, and once led the globe in the number of robots per employee, said Gee Hee Hong, an economist specializing in Japan at the International Monetary Fund. More recently, according to the International Federation of Robots, Singapore, South Korea and Germany have overtaken Japan in robots per worker. Unlike in the West, where employees often view automation as an existential threat, robots in Japan are generally portrayed as friendly forces.