Android version of literary giant Natsume Soseki to return to alma mater to lecture

Nishogakusha University is getting a new professor, an android version of literary giant Natsume Soseki that will teach classes in commemoration of the opening of the 140-year-old institution next year. This year also marks the centennial of the death of the novelist who studied Chinese literature at the private university in Tokyo in 1881. In cooperation with Hiroshi Ishiguro, a robotics researcher at Osaka University who is famous for creating an android of himself, the university plans to have the Soseki robot recite the author's own works, as well as some Chinese poems, from next April. "It's often said that high school students today don't read books," said Kaori Echigoya, a spokeswoman for the university, which also runs junior and senior high schools. "We value Japanese language education. By recreating Soseki through the help of professor Ishiguro, we would like to nurture interest in reading and literature among students."