As we’ve written about in the past, Japan has a tendency to be a bit ahead of the curve in technology – particularly in relation to robots. For those that haven’t been keeping up on this topic, I recommend starting with this photo gallery on  – some of the slides are absolutely fascinating, some are a little creepy, and some are a little of both. Flute playing, ballroom dancing, traffic control, hospital service, warriors, tea servers… robots are being used (or at least tested) for an ever-growing number of things in Japan, and the USA Today has an interesting story on this development here. A few of the more interesting quotes:

Robots are already taken for granted in Japanese factories, so much so that they are sometimes welcomed on their first day at work with Shinto religious ceremonies. Robots make sushi. Robots plant rice and tend paddies.

Japan is already an industrial robot powerhouse. Over 370,000 robots worked at factories across Japan in 2005, about 40% of the global total and 32 robots for every 1,000 Japanese manufacturing employees, according to a recent report by Macquarie, which had no numbers from subsequent years.

For Japan, the robotics revolution is an imperative. With more than a fifth of the population 65 or older, the country is banking on robots to replenish the workforce and care for the elderly.

For Hiroshi Ishiguro, also at Osaka University, the key is to make robots that look like human beings. His Geminoid robot looks uncannily like himself — down to the black, wiry hair and slight tan.