Japan has for decades been a first-mover and pacemaker with respect to the development of humanoid and android robots [1]. In this conceptual paper, we aim to demonstrate how certain android robotic projects can be embedded and interpreted within a Japanese notion of nature, where the artificial is not opposed to nature and where conventionalized idealizations in general are cherished over original state of the latter [2]. Furthermore, we will discuss how android robots epitomize challenges to the macro and micro levels of society.

[1] J. Robertson, Robo Sapiens Japanicus: Robots, Gender, Family and the Japanese Nation, University of California Press, 2017.

[2] A. Kalland and P.J. Asquith, Japanese Perceptions of Nature - Ideals and Illusions, in: Japanese Images of Nature - Cultural Perspectives, A. Kalland and P.J. Asquith, eds., Curzon Press, Richmond, 1997, p. 36.