Better Than People

Japan is a country in some serious population trouble. Since the end of WWII, there was been a decline in the birth rate, and an increase in the aging population. The total population is expected to peak in 2006, and then enter a period of depopulation for the next 50-years. This period will be a live experiment for the social scientists, as they observe a dwindling youth population cope with an ever increasing aging population. Will Japan's society survive?

Japan is a very insular country -- hardly open to foreigners. (The only country that's more closed to foreigners is probably Korea.) It is a cultural thing, and it goes way back. The culture frowns on interracial marriages for instance, as there still a stigma attached to non-Japanese. Basically, the darker your skin, the more contempt you're viewed with. It's nothing short of racism. (Related reading: The Minority Interracial Couples -- a report reviewing the marriage patterns of ethnic minorities in California.) So barring a sudden change in the social norm in Japan, just how will they balance the load of the aging population on the backs on their youth?

Answer: robots. Japan is forging ahead, spending billions on R&D to make robots look, feel and act more human. Why? The Japanese are more at ease with robots than they are with people. Japan has been groomed on a culture that is accepting of robots -- from Astro Boy and his ilk to the native religion, Shintoism. For a pretty good article on the subject, check out Better than people in the latest issue of the Economist.