Think Tank: Greying Japan On Its Way To Robot Majority - Boing Boing Gadgets:
"I suspect this same theory goes a long way towards explaining Japan's fascination with robots. Yes, robots are unequivocally awesome, but when you live in a city with a ten-to-one ratio of meat to oxygen, a man made of metal is a particularly wonderful thing. No wonder the birth rate is declining: why birth a mewling, meconium-spurting sprog when you can just have protected sex and buy yourself a cute robot puppy that flips as it yips?
But the drawback is declining birth rates and a collapsing social infrastructure. 40% of Japan's population will be over 65 in less than fifty years. And according to the Machine Industry Memorial Foundation—a robotics think tank—it is possible that up to 3.5 million jobs in Japan will be filled by robots by 2025.
In fifty years, Japan will be a curious island of anime-obsessed geriatrics, cared for by an armada of cybertronic care givers. And fifty years after that? Robo-Japan officially applies for membership in the United Nations, an event which—as all men know—eventually predicates the creation of the Matrix."
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