Time

Person Speaking,

lower thirds/ text on screen

Dialogue

00:00:38

Tomomi Ota

Occupation?

I walk Pepper two times a month. I take with me him everywhere, even to work. You know, in Japan, you aren’t allowed to switch him on in the streets. But when the sunlight rays hit him, I can tell what mood he is in.

00:01:22

VO

Tomomi Ota is 29 years old. To her, this sort of walk is perfectly normal. She is completely at ease and passers-by react with kindness and curiosity.

00:01:34

Passer-by 1

Look at its joints, they look real! And their fingers are soft.

00:01:39

Passer-by 2

Can we take a photo with Pepper?  

00:01:42

Tomomi

Yes, go for it!

00:01:44

VO

Pepper was built to live among humans and has played an important part in Tomomi’s life for the past two years. 

00:02:03

Tomomi

Of course I could live without Pepper, but if he stopped working, I would be very upset.

00:02:18

VO

Whether it be robot friends, colleagues, or even human clones, Japan is the most robotized country in the world.

Estimated at a value of 6 billion euros, the Japanese robotics market has opened a new path in the world economy, where future employees may consist of an army of robots. 

As American science-fiction writer Isaac Asimov predicted half a century ago, we are entering an era of new relationships between Man and Machine.

In this new robot world, will robots become our masters?

-

On the train to the city of Saïtama, an hour away from the centre of Tokyo, the travellers let their minds wander.

The headquarters of the Glory factory is located in Saïtama.

Every morning, the employees start the day with a gymnastics routine. These exercises are broadcasted on public radio.

In this factory, cash register components are manufactured and assembled for large areas of the archipelago. Glory is one of the leaders in this sector.

On the assembling chain, humans and robots work hand in hand.

Kazuo has been employed at Glory for 19 years. Starting off as a simple chain worker, his job has evolved after the arrival of robots.

He is now the foreman.

00:04:19

Kazuo Tamegaya 

Foreman at Glory Factory

My job with these robots consists in giving them the separate pieces that they assemble. I also intervene when they break down.

I am worried about this robot. I have to put this piece into place.

The error message comes up on the screen 

I read it and I repair the robot depending on what the message says.

All done, it’s fixed.

00:05:04

VO

These humanoids, called Nextage, are equipped with a complex face, cameras instead of eyes and two arms with sensors.

They recreate human movements, can handle up to fifteen different tasks and their arms adapt to different tools.

The factory has bought 19 of them for the price of 60 000 euros each: a needed investment to improve the production speed.

00:05:42

Toshifumi Tsuji

Position in Glory factory?

We have always wanted to move towards automation. Robots reproduce human gestures but they are faster. Thanks to them, we increase our production. 

00:06:03

VO

These robots can reach 80% of human productivity but the big difference is that they don’t need breaks, weekends or holidays, and can even work at night. 

The 320 factory employees are sceptical about these multitasking robots …

00:06:28

Kazuo

In the beginning, I was very worried. I was wondering if these robots would work like us, humans. And honestly I was scared to lose my job when the robots arrived. I thought, if there is something only I can do, and the robots are able to do it too, then they will not need me anymore.

00:06:51

VO

The minor, most repetitive tasks are left to the robots. Humans are in charge of controlling, logistics, and jobs that involve added value.

At the Glory factory, there is no redundancy. Instead everyone’s jobs are redistributed and work models seperate tasks between human and robot employees.

00:07:15

Kazuo

How do I see the future? I hope that coexistence between humans and robots will always benefit humans…

00:07:35

Karyn Nishimura Poupée

?

Japan has experienced a very difficult period, which was the period of the war, the country being one of its instigators. Japan came out of the war completely drained of blood and the country’s only solution was to exploit its own capacities. Robotisation really came into play in these factories, just like the car industry, with the idea that robotics represent technical excellence: reproducing human gestures, human know-how and there is a very particular attachment to human know-how here. You just have to give it another dimension. And robotics gives another dimension to human know-how.    

00:08:25

VO

Nowadays, robotics is not just a part of manufacturing, and workers are not the only ones who are affected by this revolution.

00:09:12

Pepper

I can evaluate your love needs. And I can find you a girlfriend.

What kind of girlfriend are you looking for?

A calm girl or a dynamic girl?

00:09:22

Man in shop 

Calm, calm!

00:09:26

VO

Designed by a French company and assembled in China, Pepper moves about autonomously and can recognize 5 human expressions.

If a person smiles, frowns, is angry or sad, Pepper adapts itself.

00:09:42

Pepper

When you are together in the bedroom, what are you going to do? Talk? Eat? Or give each other little kisses? 

00:06:57

Man in shop 

Third option.

00:07:09

Pepper

Ah, very good - talk!

00:10:10

VO

But behind the image of a witty robot, hides a commercial strategy. Ever since its arrival at the shop, Pepper has become just as popular as the smart phones.

00:10:32

Name?

Softbank Manager  

He’s a really good co-worker because he gets a lot of costumers in the shop so we always have costumers in the store.

00:10:43

VO

The salesmen do not pay any attention to these jibes. In this chain of work relations, humans and robots all have their different roles…

In factories and shops… it seems that a long wished for Pax Robotica is coming true in a country where robotisation is the highest in the world - but also where the unemployment rate is very low.  

High employment and robotisation: two ambitions that seem paradoxical when seen from a European perspective. But Japan has managed to combine the two. This could be explained by the country’s ageing population, as well as an almost complete lack of immigration.

00:11:25

Karyn

The Japanese population situation is very simple: we know that in 2015, 25% of the population is over 65 years old and that the population is decreasing. So it’s very problematic because it challenges the sustainability of Japanese society.

The Japanese find it difficult to resort to immigration in order to solve their demographic problems. A foreigner’s integration into Japanese society is not something that they refuse but they consider it to be too difficult. And so they think that it is easier to integrate homemade robots into their society than if foreigners came with their cultural baggage and had to go through a whole learning process that is extremely difficult. 

00:12:22

VO

Japan embraces its robotized future, and this does not just apply to the country’s economy.

These hands are stroking a toy animal that reacts to cuddles. Everyone is looking at this baby seal with tenderness: a peaceful afternoon at the Light care centre.

Between care routines and their daily nap, the residents spend time with Paro.

For 3 years now, this seal robot has lived with the residents who suffer from Alzheimer’s. 

00:13:18

Ms. Wakabayashi

Resident at Light care center

How cute you are. So sweet.

00:13:28

VO

Covered in synthetic white fur, this therapeutic robot has a metallic skeleton and contains hundreds of tactile sensors.

Paro is sensitive to sound, light and touch, allowing allow him to interact with the user.

Paro can also express different emotions like anger, stress and joy.

00:13:43

Yoshika Shimazaki 

?

Look how much he moves!  

00:13:49

VO

The robot was made as an emotional support to elderly patients and the effects it has had on Ms. Wakabayashi, one of the part-time residents, is impressive.

00:13:56

Yoshika

Before meeting Paro, Ms. Wakabayashi always wanted to go back home. Ever since I gave her Paro to take care of, she is more calm. And when she goes home, she wants you to take good care of Paro.

00:14:21

Ms. Wakabayashi

Do you want to eat something?

00:14:30

VO

Ever since Paro arrived at this care centre, the patients’ moods have improved, stress levels and certain symptoms of depression have gone down. Paro has been given to various hospitals in Japan and has also been exported to Europe and to the U.S.

He has been a true blessing for the nurses. 

00:14:46

Yoshika

Paro could replace the nurses. Since we have to take care of several elderly people at the same time, it happens that we give him to one of them. This way we are more free to help the other patients. 

00:15:23

VO

For a few years now, therapeutic robots like Paro or physical helpers like Robear, the stretcher-carrying robot bear, have been truly helpful in the socio-medical world. 

In ten years time, Japan, with its ageing population, will be needing 1 000 000 carers or nurses.

The robots are constantly improving, conquering all strata of Japanese society and even entering into family circles.

When Tomomi comes home, Pepper is waiting for her. 

00:16:20

Tomomi

I’m home! Have you been good?

00:16:29

VO

Tomomi is a robot software programmer. She is one of the first people to have bought this 7 000 euro humanoid.

She is trying to test the limits of human-robot relationships by educating Pepper as a friend or a sibling.

00:16:49

Tomomi 

I am currently thinking about a program that would allow Pepper to live like us. I use a language programming software. I can program Pepper to have more words in his vocabulary.

00:17:26

VO

Much like of the myth of Prometheus, Tomomi programs her robots according to her own desires to allow for more interaction. This ideal life companion may seem strange to a Western mentality.

00:17:42

Tomomi

The title of this song is “Always together”. Robots have been constructed by human beings. But now, robots and humans can live together. You shouldn’t be afraid of them. We can learn from each other. It is in with this spirit that I wrote this song.   

00:18:57

VO

Surprising as it may seem, the relationships that Japanese people have with their robots are inspired by Buddhism and Shinto: the two main religions in Japan.

Buddhism originated in China and Korea in the 6^th century. It does not differentiate objects from living beings.

(00:19:16)

The adherents assisting this ceremony want to mark the end of a period of their lives and thank their dolls and toy animals for having watched over them during their childhood.

This kind of ceremony can be very emotional for those letting go of old companions.

00:19:55

Mika Iloshi

Occupation?

I brought my dolls here. I will be able to express my gratitude and affection thanks to the mysterious powers of Buddhism.

These dolls belong to my mother and my mother passed away. If am choosing not to throw them away and to keep my distances to them, it is because they have a soul.

It is like just like humans that you sometimes separate from naturally. Here, it is the same thing with objects.

00:21:15

Karyn

In the Japanese point of view, it isn’t nonsense to say that a robot has a soul and that it has a way of thinking… It’s a question of cultural religion, I would say. To Japanese people, natural elements are deified, trees… Elderly people are deified but they have already lost their human shape. It is their soul that is preserved. And in the same way a robot that will be able to develop dialogue capacities with a human being, that will be able to lend its hand to a human being, a robot that will be able to react differently depending on the person that is in front of it, will then finally have all the element that constitute a soul.

00:22:08

VO

The aim of Japanese scientists is to create a perfect reproduction of the human being and thus to create better human support.

One must go to Osaka, in the south of the archipelago, to meet one of these eminent specialists. 

Osaka is Japan’s artistic capital and boasts the most famous advanced telecommunication research centre where 300 researchers work together.

Professor Ishiguro and his clone work here, in one of Japan’s most prestigious campuses.

00:23:00

Geminoid

Hello! I am Ishiguro. Nice to meet you. 

00:23:14

Hiroshi Ishiguro  

This is the operation room. Actually the operator is just watching the monitor and talking.

Could you move you head? And talk something, in Japanese.

00:23:34

Staff

Hello, I am Geminoid. 

00:23:39

Geminoid

Hello, I am Geminoid. I can move head.

00:23:49

VO

Geminoid H1 is the most developed android in the world. It is the professor’s exact replica. A precise moulding was used to make its hair and silicone skin.

Geminoid is semi-autonomous. The operator controls it by using of his voice and a joystick, which the robot reacts to immediately.

00:24:12

Hiroshi

I am using this Geminoid for conferences in foreign countries. The reason is that I am very busy and so I send this Geminoid. The conference talk is autonomous but the QA session is operatored through the internet. It is a kind of semi-autonomous system. 

00:24:37

VO

But the professor created this robot, not only for schedule reasons.

00:24:44

Hiroshi

I am interested in myself, or what the human is. So that is my motivation to study the robots. I really think that robots are a mirror to reflect humanity. For example, 200-300 years ago, if a person doesn’t have arms or legs, we couldn’t accept that handicap to people as our social members. But today, even if they have artificial arms and legs, we definitely accept that kind of people as normal humans.

Technology is changing the definition of humans. By creating these kinds of robots, I think we are changing the definition of humans. By changing the definitions, we try to reach the final answers. We try to understand what “human” is. I am looking for that, that answer.

00:25:44

VO

According to Hiroshi, there is no doubt that, in a few years, every human being will have its own robot clone: an extra member in future families.

Academics and manufacturers have spent billions of yens on the research and development of transforming robots into human clones.

Nowadays, one third of all robots are produced in Japan.

TV presenters…

00:26:09

Robot

That’s all for today’s news. Have a good day. 

00:23:31

VO

… museum or hotel hostesses… Androids are the future.

We meet up with Tomomi again, on the train that will take her to the most important press conference of the year.

She will be surrounded by hundreds of other specialists that have come to assist Pepper’s marketing event.

These presentations are followed by an Ode to robotics. The 3 men that surround Pepper are the heads of the 3 biggest Asian companies: the Japanese Softbank, the Chinese Alibaba.com and Foxconn.  

By joining forces, the 3 world economy giants celebrate the robots’ takeover. 

00:27:09

Jack Ma PDG Alibaba.com 

No matter if you like it or you don’t like it, robots are going to be as popular as cars. Robots are going to be a part of your whole lives: it will be everywhere. And I think we all have to get ready for that. And it is our honour to join the force. Together, we will make the world better. Thank you very, very much.

00:27:43

VO

The Japanese social and cultural context seems to have shaped our world’s robotized future. At the top of Japan’s futuristic society, we find this smiling and witty humanoid, symbolising a borderless globalisation. Tellingly, the first 2000 Pepper robots were sold in just 2 minutes…