Robo sapiens japanicus: Robots, Gender, Family, and the Japanese NationJapan is arguably the first postindustrial society to embrace the prospect of human-robot coexistence. Over the past decade, Japanese humanoid robots designed for use in homes, hospitals, offices, and schools have become celebrated in mass and social media throughout the world. In Robo sapiens japanicus, Jennifer Robertson casts a critical eye on press releases and public relations videos that misrepresent robots as being as versatile and agile as their science fiction counterparts. An ethnography and sociocultural history of governmental and academic discourse of human-robot relations in Japan, this book explores how actual robots—humanoids, androids, and animaloids—are “imagineered” in ways that reinforce the conventional sex/gender system and political-economic status quo. In addition, Robertson interrogates the notion of human exceptionalism as she considers whether “civil rights” should be granted to robots. Similarly, she juxtaposes how robots and robotic exoskeletons reinforce a conception of the “normal” body with a deconstruction of the much-invoked Theory of the Uncanny Valley. |
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Abe’s Actroid AIBO android artificial intelligence ASIMO Astro Boy bipedal body bukimi no tani cartoon chapter coexistence comic book corporate created cultural Cyberdyne’s cyborg cyborg-ableism designed disabled persons dolls dream Eguchi exoskeleton female robot figure future Geminoid gender gynoid Hasegawa household human rights humanoid robots humans and robots Ichiro industrial robots Innovation 25 Strategy Inobe family Inobe–-kun Ishiguro Japanese roboticists Japanese robotics Japanese society Jibo Jinko Kokoro koseki Kurokawa limbs lives male manga Masako Mori Mori’s Naoyuki Olympics one’s Osamu Tezuka Paralympics Paro Pepper Pino Pino’s platform PLEO postwar Prime Minister Abe prosthetic refers Robo robot rights roboticists robotto role Sazae Sazae-san sensors sexual social SoftBank Taiki Takarazuka term Tezuka tion Tokyo uncanny valley University Wabot House Wakamaru Wakame Waseda Waseda University wearable robots women Yamato family Yumiko