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An Anthropology of the Japanese Robot 

Review by Mateja Kovacic 

 

Robo Sapiens Japanicus: Robots, Gender, Family, and the Japanese Nation 

by Jennifer Robertson 

University of California Press, 20178 

 

Jennifer Robertson’s most recent book on robots in Japan is an easy-to-read ethnography-based 

overview of the ways that the national robotics policies in Japan are shaping the contemporary 

Japanese society as well as the ways that the neo-traditionalist society shapes robots. She focuses 

specifically on gender and family from an anthropological perspective, and proposes that the robots and 

the seemingly innovative policies are not socially innovative at all. Robertson demonstrates this 

through an array of examples, including the Innovation 25 program and the accompanying propaganda 

strips that portray the ways that the innovative technologies are used in a traditional family setting. 

Drawing on further case studies seen through a robotics lens, such as human rights and health care 

robots, Robertson further demonstrates that robots are envisioned by the PM Shinzō Abe’s government 

to consolidate traditionalism and nationalism in the Japanese society. This might be seen as 

counterintuitive at a first glance because robots carry the aura of the futuristic progressive post-human 

society, but as Robertson demonstrates—and this is the highlight of her book—revolutionary 

technologies do not guarantee societal revolutions. In fact, they often “sell” the image of a progressive 

society but more often re-assert the (pre)existing social norms, values, and structures. The main 

contribution of this book is therefore Robertson’s firmly demonstrated argument that robots in Japan 

not only re-assert the existing societal condition but are in fact reviving the past imperialistic 

frameworks—of both family and society. 

In this book, Robertson builds and expands on her previous works—for those who have read 

her articles before, this book will provide an updated and expanded synthesis of her continuing research 

on robots and gender in Japan. She also successfully employs her previous work on Takarazuka, an all-



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female theatre in Japan, to discuss the construction of gender, and includes robots in this discussion. 

She then criticises the unreflective gendering practices of male roboticists who reproduce traditional 

gender norms and gender performativity in their “innovative” humanoid robots. By doing so, Roberson 

creates a link between traditional society and traditional gender norms asserted through robots. 

While all chapters work successfully around Robertson’s golden thread, Chapter 7 on Cyborg-

Ableism comes as slightly disconnected from the book’s narrative. In this chapter, she writes about the 

societal perception of disabled individuals and the discrepancy between this perception and the health 

care robotics research. Perhaps the somewhat implicit idea was to demonstrate yet another paradox of 

the robotic innovation of the Japanese society, where robots are made and utilised within a traditional 

mindset. In the particular case of cyborg-ableism, not much has been changed about the ways that the 

private companies and roboticists discriminate against the disabled despite creating the enabling 

technologies such as exoskeletons. The discussion on Uncanny Valley in the same chapter also slightly 

deviates from the book’s golden thread, as the idea of the robotic uncanny linked with the fear and 

anxiety produced by the traditional way of looking at the human body seems under-elaborated in 

relation to the book’s overall framework. 

Robertson concludes her book with a very needed “reality check,” to remind her readers that 

robots are shaped by the past and existing social and cultural contexts. She also shows the reader how 

important it is to discern between the robot hype and what is really out there. Aside from Japan, many 

countries, including Dubai and South Korea, are using the still-developing technologies to promote 

their societal agendas as well as to boost their global image. The message of the book therefore is that 

the utopian futuristic images of society mask underlining problems. 

Overall, the book demonstrates Robertson’s unique dexterity in researching Japanese culture, 

and bringing together different phenomena and perspectives to analyse society in a holistic and 

systematic way. Robertson contextualises robots with history, popular culture, religion, spirituality and 

other important aspects of the research with ease and dynamism that will appeal to readers. The book 

provides an updated synthesis for those who are familiar with her work, but it will also be helpful for 

anyone interested in contemporary Japan. Thanks to Robertson’s avoidance of academic jargon and her 

smooth writing style, the book will be an easy and informative read for both academic and general 

audience. 

 

Mateja Kovacic is a British Academy Postdoctoral Fellow based at the Nissan Institute, University of 

Oxford as well as a Visiting Research Fellow at the Urban Institute, University of Sheffield. Her 



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research has a multidisciplinary focus on robots, from autonomous vehicles to humanoid robots in 

Japan and beyond. She also specialises in the history of technology and science, and the material 

history of Tokugawa Japan. Mateja's current projects includes the politics and political history of 

humanoid robots in Japan, as well as collaborative projects on autonomous delivery drones in Africa, 

urban automation and robotics, and robotics and AI in China. 

 

 

 

© 2018 Mateja Kovacic 


