Japan Series 日本系列 4 | Why Japan leads in robot industry
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According to the world robotics industrial robot report 2018 released by the International Federation of robotics, Japan is the world's leading supplier of industrial robots. Japanese industrial robot manufacturers provided just over half (nearly 55%) of the industrial robots in 2017, an increase of 39% from 2016.
根据国际机器人联合会（International Federation of Robotics）发布的《2018年世界机器人-工业机器人报告》（World Robotics-Industrial Robot Report 2018），日本是全球领先的工业机器人供应商的国家。日本工业机器人制造商在2017年提供的工业机器人数量略过全球的一半（近55%），比2016年增加了39%。
Japan is not only a leading robot manufacturer and exporter, but also a leading robot adopter. In 2017, there were 297,200 industrial robots put into use in Japan, which was the second highest installation base of industrial robots in 2017 (after China).
日本不仅是领先的机器人制造商和出口国，也是领先的机器人采用国。仅仅2017年，在日本国家一共有使用297200台工业机器人，是2017年安装工业机器人最多的第二个国家（仅次于中国）。
Cultural influences 文化影响
In Japan, people are generally optimistic about robots. Comics and animation have a stronger cultural influence on the interest of robotics. In comics, robots are often portrayed as children s friends. The generation after the 1950s, when they grew up watching comics, learned about friendship, courage, justice and charity through stories including robots. Therefore, Japanese tend to have a friendly feeling towards robots. I know some robot researchers who were initially fans of the famous Astro cartoon.
在日本，人们普遍看好机器人。漫画和动画对机器人学的兴趣产生了更强烈的文化影响。在漫画中，机器人常常被描绘成孩子们的朋友，看漫画长大的20世纪50年代后的人还通过了讲述机器人的故事了解了友谊、勇气、正义和慈善。因此，日本人倾向于对机器人有友好的感觉，我认识一些专门研究机器人的人员都是最开始是著名的“阿童木”漫画的粉丝。
Automotive industry: Historical driver of robot adoption
汽车工业：历史以来机器人采用的主要驱动力
Of course, cultural influence is only part of the picture. Japan plays a leading role in the development and adoption of robotics, with obvious economic and social reasons. The development of Japanese automobile industry is probably the most important factor that affects the rapid development of Japanese robot industry.
文化的影响当然只是一部分。日本在机器人技术开发和采用方面发挥主导作用也有明显的经济和社会原因。日本汽车工业的发展可能是影响日本机器人工业快速发展的最重要因素。
In 1980, Japan became the world's largest automaker. Japanese automobile manufacturers began to use industrial robots in the late 1970s. After 1980, with the development of more advanced robot technology, the utilization rate of robots increased. This allowed Japanese automakers to launch new plants quickly to achieve rapid overseas expansion.
1980年，日本成为全球最大的汽车制造商。日本汽车制造商在20世纪70年代末开始使用工业机器人，1980年后，随着更先进的机器人技术的发展，机器人的使用率有所提高。这使得日本汽车制造商能够迅速地建立新工厂，以实现海外扩张。
Domestically, robots solve the problem of shortage of automobile workers, including skilled welding technicians. Japanese robot manufacturers started to compete around quality and performance to meet the needs of the automotive industry, as such, Japanese robot manufacturers began to take the lead in the global robot market. At the same time, Japan's life employment system meant that employees were not worried about the introduction of robots affecting their work.
在日本国内，机器人解决了一些包括熟练焊接技术人员在内的汽车工人短缺的问题。日本机器人制造商靠质量和性能的能力以应对汽车行业的需求，这一点导致了日本机器人制造商开始在全球机器人市场占据领先地位。与此同时，日本的终身雇佣制（lifetime employment system）鼓励着员工们并不担心机器人的使用会影响他们的在岗位的作用。
Labor shortages across many sectors drives new demand for robots
许多行业的劳动力短缺推动了对机器人的新需求
The labor shortage is still driving Japan's adoption of robots not just in the car industry. Japan's working age population has declined by 13% from its peak in 1995, and further gaps are expected. The introduction of robots is considered to be one of the ways to solve this problem which affects many industries in the country.
劳动力短缺还是推动了日本采用机器人的最重要因素。日本劳动适龄人口从1995年的峰值下降了13%，预计还会出现进一步的缺口。机器人的使用被认为是解决这一问题的方法之一，它影响到日本的许多行业。
Some of these industries have particularly high demand for robots, such as logistics, nursing and elderly care, agriculture, inspection and maintenance of aging public infrastructure, and "behind the scenes" work in the service and non-manufacturing sectors. In manufacturing, the food industry also began to use robots to deal with labor shortage.
其中一些行业对机器人的需求特别高，如物流、护理和老年护理、农业、检查和维护老化的公共基础设施，以及服务业和非制造业领域的“幕后”工作。在制造业，食品业也开始采用机器人来应对劳动力短缺。
The development and application of robots in these fields are different. Logistics is a very promising field, and has begun to realize automation through robots. The application of robots in the food industry varies by process - some processes, such as selecting and packaging food have been automated with robots.
机器人在这些领域的发展和应用状况各不相同。物流是一个非常有前途的领域并且已经开始通过机器人实现自动化。机器人在食品工业中的应用因工艺而异——有些工艺，如挑选和包装食品，已经用机器人实现了自动化。
Japanese people are not afraid of robots but consider them as partners. Robots will perform tasks which they can do more productively than humans or which are heavy burdens for humans, and humans will perform tasks which robots cannot. The Japanese government has, through its ‘New Robot Strategy’ published in 2015, set a clear focus on speeding the adoption of robots in sectors with low productivity, particularly nursing, agriculture and infrastructure construction. This strategy of course also creates domestic demand which is beneficial for Japanese robot manufacturers, and this will be a boost to the further development of the robot industry.
日本人对机器人没有恐惧感，他们把机器人当作伙伴。机器人将执行比人类更有效率或对人类来说是沉重负担的任务，而人类也有一些机器人无法做成的任务。日本政府通过2015年公布的“新机器人战略”，明确说明了政府要推动加快护理、农业和基础设施建设领域用机器人的使用。这一战略当然也创造了有利于日本机器人制造商的内需，还将推动机器人产业的进一步发展。
World Robot Summit 世界机器人峰会
One element of the new robotics strategy is the world robotics Summit (WRS), which the government uses as a venue to showcase the latest robotics technology and accelerate robot research and development in areas where robots have not yet been adopted. The theme of WRS is cooperation between human and robot. As a pre-event of WRS 2020, last year's WRS exhibition and conference program attracted 76,374 visitors.
新机器人战略的一个要素是世界机器人峰会（WRS），政府将其作为展示最新机器人技术和鼓励尚未采用机器人领域的机器人研发的场所。WRS的主题是人类和机器人之间的合作。作为WRS 2020的前期活动，去年的WRS展览和会议计划吸引了76374人参加。
In addition, the world robot competition attracted more than 1000 participants (126 teams from 23 countries) from young robot researchers and engineers from all over the world who are committed to making robots complete tasks that are easy for humans but still difficult for robots. This is important because despite the hype, robots that can actually accomplish many of the tasks required by care and other services are still in the development stage.
此外，世界机器人大赛吸引了大约来自世界各地的23个国家，126个团队年轻机器人研究人员和工程师的1000多个参赛者，他们致力于让机器人完成一些对人类来说很容易但对机器人来说仍然很难完成的任务。这一点很重要，由于能够完成护理和其他服务部门所需的许多任务的机器人仍处于研发阶段。
In many of these tasks, the high dexterity and responsiveness required for direct interaction between humans and robots are quite different from the needs of the automotive and electronics industries. These industries are the main users of robots today, accounting for more than 60% of the total shipments of industrial robots in Japan.
在许多这样的任务中，人类与机器人直接互动所需的高度灵巧性和反应能力与汽车和电子行业的需求截然不同。这些行业是当今机器人的最主要需求的，占日本工业机器人总出货量的60%以上。
The needs of nursing and other service sectors pose significant technical challenges to robot manufacturers and integrators. Japan has a long tradition of collaborating between manufacturers and users in the pursuit of quality improvement.
护理和其他服务部门的需求对机器人制造商和集成商有重大的技术挑战。日本在制造商和用户之间为追求质量改进而进行合作的传统由来已久，我相信这种文化将为日本机器人开发商服务。
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