The Japanese could well be the biggest robot fans – most likely down to their long-standing familiarity with industrial robots. Robots made big leaps in performance, particularly from the 1970s, during the time when Japan’s economy experienced a period of rapid growth
With half the global market share, Japan is still considered the world leader in technology for the machines that build, well, other machines. Particularly notable are the robots that manufacture items like car parts and machinery; instead of being designed as general purpose units, these robots are made for specific operations. They continue to evolve thanks to increasingly advanced and precise manufacturing techniques.
Humanoids are another area of robotics strongly associated with Japan – a field in which designers craft robots that mimic human functions and interactions. It’s through Japan’s pop culture – robots depicted as friends in manga or anime such as Tetsuwan Atom (Astro Boy) and Doraemon – that people have become fond of humanoid robots. This familiarity has led people to feel closer to robots than to simpler machines.