‘Rinri’: An Incitement towards the Existence of Robots in Japanese Society

Abstract

Known as the “Robot Kingdom”, Japan has launched, with granting outstanding governmental budgets, a new strategic plan in order to create new markets for the RT (Robot-Technology) Industry. Now that the social structure is greatly modernized and a high social functionality has been achieved, robots in the society are taking a popular role for Japanese people. The motivation for such great high-tech developments has to be researched in how human relations work, as well as in the customs and psychology of the Japanese. With examining the background of the Japanese affirmativeness toward Robots, this paper reveals the Animism and the Japanese ethics, “Rinri”, that benefit the Japanese Robotics. First the introduction describes the Japanese social context which serves in order to illustrate the term “Rinri”. The meaning of Japanese Animism is explained in order to understand why Rinri is to be considered as an incitement for Japanese social robotics.