To coordinate efforts addressing the challenges caused by demographic transition and to revitalize the Japanese economy, the Robot Revolution Realization Initiative64 pro-
moted by Prime Minister Abe developed the ‘New Robot Strategy’65 (NRS), which was
launched in 2015 – a five year plan to build a diverse industry for robotics producing
64 In Japanese: robotto kakumei inishiatibu kyōgikai ロボット革命イニシアティブ協議会 65 In Japanese: robotto shin senryaku ロボット新戦略
adequate solutions for challenges- is composed to answer a variety of social issues, but solving the labor shortage by releasing workers to the labor market due to improved productivity and stopping the increase of social costs are prioritized targets (RRRC 2015, 2). The strategy identifies the aged Japanese society as a fruitful background for the upraising of a new robotics industry, as it bears not entirely utilized economic potentials, being targets for innovative technologies in various areas (health, care, human support, etc.). The introduction of robot technology in the way defined by the NRS may, addition- ally, contribute to lowering the pressure on the welfare state by supporting the self-de- pendence of Japanese elderly, and improving the situation for workers in the care sector through reducing physical and mental burdens by the use of technology.
Basically, there were five main clusters of incentives which have led to the establishment of the new support strategy for robotics: (1), the demographic situation as described in chapter 3.3.1, (2) the economic market potential of robotics, (3) growing global competi- tion challenging the country's status as ‘robotic superpower’, (4) the Olympic games in Tokyo in 2020 as a platform for show-casing based on world-wide attention for the event, and (5) the chance to use the accentuation of rules and arrangements hindering the breakthrough of many robotic products as a means to continue and legitimize deregula- tion.
The METI has realized the diverse market potentials of the robotics industry in its esti- mations of the possible size of certain market segments. The segmentation into four sub- markets for robotics used in the case of METI's market prediction was slightly extended to five target sections in the NRS (manufacturing, service, nursing/ medical care, infra- structure maintenance/ disaster response/ construction, food refinement) emphasizing the labor-intensive health care and infrastructure sectors as important targets for robotic innovations (RRRC 2015, i).
In 2013 METI (2013b) data combines the results of a survey conducted among the Jap- anese robotics industry and world robot-trading figures, enormous growth is predicted for the introduction of robotics in all of these sectors, leading to an expansion of more than ten times of the total market value. The NRS adds the advancement of the market for nursing-care robots to 50 billion Yen as an aim (RRRC 2015, 89). Additionally, in 2013, the Yano Research Institute forecasted less enormous, but still significant, growth of the market volume in the case of care robots from 2.3 billion Yen in 2015 to 34.9 billion yen in 2020 (Yano Research Institute 2014). For reaching this predicted market size in 2020, annual growth of around 6.5 billion yen is necessary. These positive evaluations
of market potentials allow two conclusions: Leading political actors have realized the economic potential of robotics and a large percentage of the market is not yet adequately realized. The predicted growth of partial markets for robotic products is not the only im- portant economic factor making coordinated support of the robotics industry attractive for decision-makers. Japan has acquired a competitive advantage in robot production due to the growth of its high-tech industries. Supplies essential for the construction of robots like sensors, high-capacity processors, various kinds of servo-electronics and other fine-mechanics, can be produced in high quality and quantity at relatively low prices by experienced domestic companies. This enhances affordability for robotic solutions and enables the development of attractive high-tech products.
The third incentive for the NRS is growing competition in the robot business, leading to fear that Japan might lose its status as a ‘robotic superpower’ and the world's forerunner of robot innovation (RRRC 2015, 1).
Additionally, the NRS does not only see growing motivation of reference economies to invest in robotics as a threat. Increased basic research inducing knowledge exchange and cooperative projects leading to an opening of the Japanese scientific community to foreign input, added to the chance of evaluating other countries' approaches to fostering robotics, could become fruitful factors for the overall progress of the Robotic Revolution (RRRC 2015, 5). In that sense, expanding experiences and a raise in general affinity for robots based on successful trials in other countries could also turn them into target mar- kets for Japanese products, especially as most advanced industries have gathered ex- periences with the import and quality of Japan's industrial robots.
The fourth incentive, which led to the compilation of the new robot strategy, was the selection of Tokyo as the host city for the summer Olympics scheduled for 2020. This event will attract visitors from all over the world and focus the media's attention on Japan. Such an international event is an opportunity to present the country and its robotic inven- tions to the world. Hence, the NRS includes a plan to use the attention to showcase the outcome of the Robot Revolution to the world in a competition between the world's most advanced robotics in the form of a ‘robot olympic’ tournament (RRRC 2015, 48). In ad- dition, foreign visitors are supposed to experience the penetration in Japanese society by robotics on the base of daily interaction, and return to their home countries with a positive impression advertising Japan as an innovative country with outstanding achieve- ments in robotics. In this sense, the Olympic Games will be the benchmark for the NRS, showing the progress or potential shortcomings of the strategy. This explains further why
many parts of the plan are composed in a detailed five-year-schedule, aiming at the acceleration of research for the on-time achievement of progress until the Games. The last, but, as there is no hierarchy of importance between points, not least significant incentive for the NRS is the chance for the Abe government to promote deregulation in various sectors. Even though the cutting-edge domestic research of well-known insti- tutes turned into a promising business model, it was nearly impossible to obtain funding. The establishment of a culture of venture investment and, in this sense, the liberalization of the financial market, is one of the central aims of Prime Minister Abe. For that purpose, the prime minister also initiated an exchange program to send around 200 Japanese business actors to Silicon Valley in the next few years to learn the culture of entrepre- neurship and investment in the high-tech sector (Shigeru Sato and Yui 2015). The im- portance of adequate capital sources for SME and start-ups is explicitly highlighted in the NRS as well (RRRC 2015, 15).
The opening of the capital market is, nevertheless, just one part of the deregulation strat- egies concerning robotics. The NRS recognizes the need for initiation of far-reaching reforms encouraging the advanced utilization of robots by institutions under close coop- eration with the Regulatory Reform Council (RRRC 2015, 15), tackling various areas of society such as the establishment of ‘internationally harmonized regulations’66 (RRRC
2015, 27) according to safety and approval procedures, to enable standardization and to build the foundation for export. Moreover, trials conducted in special robot testing zones, following the example of the Fukuoka site, are supposed to be beneficial for recognition of the need for regulatory reforms. Accidents occurring through the course of testing leading to damages of not yet defined responsibility, for example in case of an incorrect individually-made decision by an AI, could be one way to identify necessary regulatory adjustments (Weng 2015).
A first success stemming from the Japanese trial system was the acceptance of ISO13482 as the new international standard for the interaction of humans and robots (ISO 2014). The application of this new norm is supposed to be the first step in the di- rection of development of a regulative framework adjusted to the needs of new robots and facilitating the development of technological innovations.
3.3.3 Technical Solutions for Social Problems – Care Robots from an Administrative