Robots seen doing work of 3.5 million in Japan

TOKYO (Reuters) - Robots could fill the jobs of 3.5 million people in graying Japan by 2025, a thinktank says, helping to avert worker shortages as the country's population shrinks.

Japan faces a 16 percent slide in the size of its workforce by 2030 while the number of elderly will mushroom, the government estimates, raising worries about who will do the work in a country unused to, and unwilling to contemplate, large-scale immigration.

The thinktank, the Machine Industry Memorial Foundation, says robots could help fill the gaps, ranging from microsized capsules that detect lesions to high-tech vacuum cleaners.

Rather than each robot replacing one person, the foundation said in a report that robots could make time for people to focus on more important things.

Japan could save 2.1 trillion yen ($21 billion) of elderly insurance payments in 2025 by using robots that monitor the health of older people, so they don't have to rely on human nursing care, the foundation said in its report.

Caregivers would save more than an hour a day if robots helped look after children, older people and did some housework, it added. Robotic duties could include reading books out loud or helping bathe the elderly.

"Seniors are pushing back their retirement until they are 65 years old, day care centers are being built so that more women can work during the day, and there is a move to increase the quota of foreign laborers. But none of these can beat the shrinking workforce," said Takao Kobayashi, who worked on the study.

"Robots are important because they could help in some ways to alleviate such shortage of the labor force."

The current fertility rate is 1.3 babies per woman, far below the level needed to maintain the population, while the government estimates that 40 percent of the population will be over 65 by 2055, raising concerns about who will look after the graying population.

Kobayashi said changes was still needed for robots to make a big impact on the workforce.

"There's the expensive price tag, the functions of the robots still need to improve, and then there are the mindsets of people," he said.

"People need to have the will to use the robots."

(Reporting by Yoko Kubota; Editing by Rodney Joyce)

Id hit that shit

Nice!

They need to make the robots more life like.  The one pictured looks more like a mannequin.  

De took r job!!

This planet is overcrowded as it is and they want synthetics now?Why dont we send them some illegals to fill the empty jobs over there?

I'd hit it, two times.

Quoted: De took r job!!

Its "jerb".  

Quoted: Id hit that shit

Fuckin' A!

that thing will become self aware just to tell most of the guys here "no!"

Quoted: that thing will become self aware just to tell most of the guys here "no!"

Once sex bots become cheaper then dating the human race will become extinct.

Quoted: This planet is overcrowded as it is and they want synthetics now?Why dont we send them some illegals to fill the empty jobs over there?

because illegals aren't willing..

Quoted: Quoted: De took r job!! Its "jerb".

thanks, I wasnt quite sure how to word it.

yeah, but why does she need a wrist watch?

Gives new meaning to "doing the robot"

I'd hit it.

damn, you guys have low standards......   it's a toaster...

If you watch Japanese anime, you'll come to realize how obsessed they are with making robots and mechs. Have we learned nothing from the Terminator documentaries?

do you have to be careful with water base lube????

Options?

Cup size?
Vibrate feature?
The word 'no' not programmed?

Possibilties are endless.

Labor force issues??  Japan meet Mexico, Mexico this is Japan....  Problem solved.

The Japanese are strange people.

They're faced with an impending population crisis and an aging populace.
Normal nations would just make more babies.

The Japanese are trying to make robots.  

Quoted: scott.kics.bc.ca/images/cherry.jpg

Galaxina is hawt too

Quoted: The Japanese are strange people. They're faced with an impending population crisis and an aging populace. Normal nations would just make more babies. The Japanese are trying to make robots.

No shit.

What's their current birthrate, like 1.1 or some crazy shit?  

They're in the death spiral bigtime.

After reading "America Alone" I was at Japan.

Kevin "Get busy already!"

Quoted: scott.kics.bc.ca/images/cherry.jpg

Man I want a Cherry 2000!

The current fertility rate is 1.3 babies per woman, far below the level needed to maintain the population

Wonder why that is  Maybe because of overcrowding in the cities?

Quoted: Id hit that shit

I DID

It figures the Japanese will be the first to invent the "model XQJ-37 Nuclear Powered Pan-Sexual Roto-Plooker" (somewhat obscure Frank Zappa reference).

Quoted: Quoted: Once sex bots become cheaper then dating the human race will become extinct. Women are expensive, hard to maintain, unreliable beasts. Slim, high quality They're availability is low and production costs are high. Upgrading are expensive. Much like the mighty steam locomotive was 50 years ago, the nasty versions they too will soon be replaced by a sleeker, less expensive, easier to maintain, and much more efficient alternative.

Fixed it for ya.  There are hordes of large beasts around.

height=8

Quoted: The Japanese are strange people. They're faced with an impending population crisis and an aging populace. Normal nations would just make more babies. The Japanese are trying to make robots.  he Then you have taxes- taxes have taxes on top of other taxes here.  Import taxes, distribution taxes, sales tax, sales tax for certain items based on the contents of that item (example-Beer:70 some odd percent or more made with hops and whatever means the tax will be insane too bad I dont remember how much but here are the numbers where Im at- 10 USD for a 6 pack of the 70 plus percent beer, below that and a 6 pack costs 7 USD, and below that its like 5 USD all because of what the beer was made with).  It doesnt stop with that though.  Just recently the provisional gasoline tax expired, so now gas is 24 yen cheaper per litre where I reside yet the government is bitching about not having money now, and vowing to "uphold the tax on gasoline."  Robots are only a small hope for companies here, and even households which is quite sad.

www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2007/apr/07040501.html

April 5, 2007 (LifeSiteNews.com) – In his alarming -- but not, I think, alarmist -- book America Alone (Regnery, 2006) Mark Steyn highlights the threat posed by falling birthrates worldwide, a phenomenon he calls "the demographic death spiral".

Steyn calls Japan "the most geriatric jurisdiction on the planet", and goes on: "[There] the rising sun has already passed into the next phase of its long sunset: net population loss. 2005 was the first year since records began in which the country had more deaths than births. Japan offers the chance to observe the demographic death spiral in its purest form. It's a country with no immigration, no significant minorities and no desire for any: just the Japanese, aging and dwindling."

One consequence of deaths exceeding births is that in Japan dolls have replaced children. A news story explained: "toy makers are designing new dolls designed not for the young but for the lonely and elderly -- companions who can sleep next to them,The Yumel doll, which looks like a baby boy and has a vocabulary of 1,200 phrases sells at a price of 8,500 yen ($80). 'I feel so good, good night', the doll says, before falling asleep if the owner pats it gently on the chest."

Just think of it: 1,200 phrases; a vocabulary in excess of most of today's university graduates. And just one gentle pat and the bedmate drifts off to Neverland. A tired wife's dream.

The first recorded commandment God gave in the Garden of Eden was: "Be fruitful and multiply and replenish the earth" (Genesis 1:22). But we are moderns, hell-bent on the pursuit of happiness. We do not consider ourselves bound by ancient commandments. We decided collectively -- and quite some time ago -- that ancient wisdom has nothing to teach us.

ETA:

Yumel doll www.wordpress.tokyotimes.org/?p=461

Let us not forget Andromeda Ascendant for hittable constructs.  Michael Shanks is one lucky bastard.

height=8

Quoted: www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2007/apr/07040501.html April 5, 2007 (LifeSiteNews.com) – In his alarming -- but not, I think, alarmist -- book America Alone (Regnery, 2006) Mark Steyn highlights the threat posed by falling birthrates worldwide, a phenomenon he calls "the demographic death spiral". Steyn calls Japan "the most geriatric jurisdiction on the planet", and goes on: "[There] the rising sun has already passed into the next phase of its long sunset: net population loss. 2005 was the first year since records began in which the country had more deaths than births. Japan offers the chance to observe the demographic death spiral in its purest form. It's a country with no immigration, no significant minorities and no desire for any: just the Japanese, aging and dwindling." One consequence of deaths exceeding births is that in Japan dolls have replaced children. A news story explained: "toy makers are designing new dolls designed not for the young but for the lonely and elderly -- companions who can sleep next to them,The Yumel doll, which looks like a baby boy and has a vocabulary of 1,200 phrases sells at a price of 8,500 yen ($80). 'I feel so good, good night', the doll says, before falling asleep if the owner pats it gently on the chest." Just think of it: 1,200 phrases; a vocabulary in excess of most of today's university graduates. And just one gentle pat and the bedmate drifts off to Neverland. A tired wife's dream. The first recorded commandment God gave in the Garden of Eden was: "Be fruitful and multiply and replenish the earth" (Genesis 1:22). But we are moderns, hell-bent on the pursuit of happiness. We do not consider ourselves bound by ancient commandments. We decided collectively -- and quite some time ago -- that ancient wisdom has nothing to teach us. ETA: Yumel doll www.wordpress.tokyotimes.org/?p=461

What a freaking idiot for blaming dolls.  Then again I give a better example as to why the birth rate is so low, yet this article has to be all christian like and blame it on dolls instead of the obvious...

Quoted: Just think of it: 1,200 phrases; a vocabulary in excess of most of today's university graduates.

Chii turns  on chii turns off chii turns on chii turns off

Not for me!  Ugly, very ugly.

Quoted: scott.kics.bc.ca/images/cherry.jpg

I'll have one of those please.

I'll take a Rachael model

"...my girl robot. This is gonna be the best prom ever."

RealDoll 2.0?

Cherry 2000?  

I want to get a real hot asian looking doll for around the house.  I'd use her servicing my...
...car, cleaning my....
...windows, and giving me a hand...
...with the yard work...

Sexy Robots???

Oh Mama!

Polish my....
flatware, lay some...
mulch, lick my wife's...
stamps...

Quoted: De took r job!!

DEY TOOOK AR YOBS!!!

I'm working on it guys. Got the heads done.