Japan economic revitalization plan is to double manufacturing robots and increase service robots by 20 times by 2020

Japan's revised revitalization strategy, the Robot Revolution Initiative, is to double the use of robotics in manufacturing, and increase by twenty-fold robotics use in other sectors, including service industries. In part this is an effort to deal with the country's declining birthrate and aging population by providing robotic helpmates in industries such as healthcare, agriculture, and the inspection and repair of the country's infrastructure."

The “Robotic Revolution Initiative Council” was to create a 5 year plan by the end of 2014 with the aim of addressing social challenges and realizing new industrial revolution by robots.

Four times the budget for robots, going up to $20 billion

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe vowed to expand the robot market in the near future by pouring a considerable amount of money into the project. We’re talking some 2.4 trillion Japanese Yen, or the equivalent of about $20 billion. The government is currently allocating about 600 billion Yen ($5.34 billion) into robotics, which is apparently enough to keep Japan in the lead when it comes to researching and building robots.

Japan previously showed off a cooking robot

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said

In the United States and Europe, other countries are attempting to become the leaders in new robotics by introducing new production systems that fuse IT, such as Big Data, with robotics. In this new era, if we continue to sit idly by, we are likely to simply become subcontractors of the United States and Europe.
The key to becoming a new, major player in robotics development is to spread the use of robotics from large-scale factories to every corner of our economy and society. I believe that we must transform robots into reliable partners that can support everyone who works, including those working in manufacturing in small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs); those working in the agricultural industry, where the working population is aging; those doing back-breaking work in the field of nursing; and those working on the inspection and repair of aging infrastructure.

We have gathered here today people from a variety of fields beyond what we typically think of when we think about the conventional image of robots as industrial machines. This includes people from the agriculture, forestry, and fisheries industries; the food industry; the medical and welfare industries; the communications industry; and the construction industry. This truly represents a Japan-wide effort and I would say this is befitting a celebration to mark the start of the robot revolution.

Robots will dramatically change people’s lives and society. That is what makes this a robot revolution. To think that we could find success with conventional systems is nothing more than a dream within a dream. Now is the time to boldly transform our ideas. The Government and private sector must work as one to break down the walls between industries and between ministries and agencies, and follow a shared strategy and path with their sights set on the world.

The dawn of the revolution is upon us. At one SME I visited last year, robots were working side-by-side with humans and doing finely detailed assembly work. The price for one of these robots is around 7 million yen. That is affordable, even for an SME. I was very surprised to see such a high performing robot at such a low price.

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