Robot Unemployment Rate Soars in Japan
Play a small violin for thousands of Japanese industrial robots which now stand silent, victims of the global economic downturn in a country that hosts the highest robot-to-human ratio. Recession times have proved a harsh reality check for Japan's ongoing love affair with robots. Novelty robots have fared the worst, unsurprisingly, as cute or quirky represents the first to go when consumers check their wallets. But even the 370,000 industrial robot workers--the most of any nation--toiling away tirelessly in Japanese factories have seen a sharp drop in demand that mirrors Japan's 40-percent overall decline in industrial production. One analyst told The New York Times that he expects the industrial robot market to shrink by up to 40 percent this year. And the Japan Robot Association noted that shipments of industrial robots fell 59 percent in the first quarter of 2009. For us squishy types,...