Inside the Robot Kingdom
Japan, Mechatronics, and the Coming Robotopia
Story || Cover Text || Praise || Data || TOC || Get
Story
The image on the left shows the first edition, a hardback edition that appeared in 1988, with a cool photograph of a Toshiba ARI (Assembly Robot with Intelligence) robot shown trying to assemble some Lego block structure. It looks a tad puzzled, don't you think? At this point in history, it also looks a bit antiquated, which is definitely not the way it looked when the book first came out; then, it looked shockingly advanced. The image on the far right is the second edition, the 1990 paperback, showing a cool surfing robot drawn by the famous artist, Hajime Sorayama. Both the 1988 and 1990 editions were published by Kodansha International, in Tokyo. The image in the middle is the 2011 e-book & Kindle edition, designed by my late friend, the genius cartoonist and graphic designer Raymond Larrett. Which cover do you like best?
To quote from the introduction:
,"It is about robots and Japan, and in the larger sense, about technology and culture. Like most people, until recently my image of robots confused science fiction and real life. I have always been fascinated, however, by the way robots in all forms-- in fantasy and industry-- are so celebrated in Japan. Around the end of 1984, while touring some factories in the United States, and seeing so few industrial robots at work, I began to realize that "robots"-- in all their various forms-- can really be seen as a symbol of a larger relationship between people and technolgy. To understand why America was having trouble with robotization and other steps on the road to the twenty-first century, and why Japan seemed to be more successful, it would be necessary to look beyond the machine. This led to my interviewing people with all kinds of different connections with robots in both nations, touring factories, attending international conferences, and reading hundreds of books, magazines, and journals and, especially, the daily industrial newspapers of Japan."
In retrospect, Inside the Robot Kingdom was one of the most ambitious projects I've ever undertaken, and the labor required gave me a lot of gray hair, but I learned a great deal about technology, automation, and their relationship to culture. Just assembling all the photographs and illustrations was terribly time-consuming. I'm proud to say that I drew the illustration of the robot assembly line on p. 36! Peter Goodman edited the book. The text design was by Eric Jungerman. For animation and manga fans, note that this book also has an entire chapter on robots of the imagination, as well as a chapter on the robot toy industry. I still feel very honored that this book was selected as "One of the best Sci-Tech books of 1988" by the prestigious Library Journal.
Cover Text
A blurb from the paperback edition:
Visitors to Japan today can see robots making sushi, starring in feature films, and performing sophisticated factory assembly. Why is Japan the world's leader in applied robotics? Why are Japanese so comfortable around robots? What is the larger social and cultural significance of Japan's love of robots? This book will answer these questions and guide readers to the Robot Kingdom.
A preface to the 2011 digital edition (updated a tad for 2023):
--Back to top--"I began doing research for Inside the Robot Kingdom in the mid-1980s. In retrospect, it was a particularly interesting time to write a book on Japanese robots and the relationship between culture and technology. I had also been doing a lot of interpreting in those days related to technology and manufacturing, and it heavily influenced me. There was then a palpable sense in Japan that the twenty-first century was to be Japan's century, an era in which its unique approach toward technology—especially manufacturing technology—would usher in a bright, shining, new age. In the United States and in Europe, many in corporate boardrooms and on factory floors shared this opinion, although their attitude was one of gloom born of defeatism.
Since then much has changed. In the early 1990s Japan's economic bubble burst, and the country entered a profound slump that surprised everyone by its duration. Instead of Japan, it was the United States, with its software and network technologies, that led the Internet revolution and demonstrated a newly re-energized economy that lasted into the new millennium. And instead of Japan, in the new multi-polar world of the twenty-first century it was South Korea, Taiwan, and the emerging economies of China, Brazil, India, and Russia that really roared for attention. Still, at the beginning of the twenty-first century, Japan remained an economic powerhouse, and people could still marvel at its technology. Japan was admired for its ubiquitous wireless communications, for its innovations in green energy technology, and for its sophisticated and elegantly designed high tech products. Less frequently noted was the fact that Japan was still a "Robot Kingdom."
The least glamorous robot is the industrial version, working mainly in factories. Industrial robots have both a hardware and software component, and in the late 1980s it was still not entirely clear which was more important. Despite America's domination of the software industry in general today, in the world of industrial robots, in both number and application, Japan today remains a global leader.
Fantasy robots are as popular as ever in Japan, and indigenous Japanese designs have now been successfully transplanted overseas. As young people around the world consume more and more Japanese pop culture in the form of manga and anime, they also absorb Japanese ideas of what robots should be, whether pilot-able exoskeletons or transforming robots, or—as with fantasy characters like Astro Boy and Doraemon—lovable “pal” robots. Increasingly, images of robots in the American and European fantasy media seem Japanese-inspired.
In the world of experimental robots and robots outside of manufacturing, Japan is not the only nation doing interesting research. Yet Japan is still a pioneer in trying to develop appealing humanoid and animal-like robots. Major Japanese corporations regularly announce increasingly sophisticated bipedal robots that can dance or run or walk up stairs, or four-legged robots that act as human helpers or function as surrogate animal pets. At a serious level (as opposed to attempts to mass-produce simple toys) this is an effort that heralds the ultimate realization of a long cherished Japanese goal—the creation of intelligent, humanoid robots that will live among us and help us.
Inside the Robot Kingdom: Japan, Mechatronics, and the Coming Robotopia has been out of print for many years now, but as time and technology advance, more and more people have wondered if they could somehow purchase a digital copy. With the help of my dear friend Raymond Larrett, an expert on digital publishing and my personal oracle on all things modern and interesting, it is finally now possible to offer this book in a new, free-flowing format viewable on a wide variety of digital platforms. The digital version presents the original content of the book unaltered, except for formatting and design. While this book was first published in 1988, I hope readers will find much in it that applies to today, and hints of tomorrow.
Praise
"Fascinating...It is ironic-- and Schodt appreciates the irony--that the Arnold Schwarzenegger filmThe Terminator ends with the berserk humanoid monster meeting its end next to two industrial robots, one made by Japan's Fanuc and the other by Japan's Yaskawa."--High Technology Business
"[A] sharp, singular book." --Los Angeles Times Book Review
"Western industrialists will learn more about competing with Japan from this book than from all the how-to books that have proliferated since Japan Inc. became a popular ogre."--Joseph Engelberger (Father of the Industrial Robot)
--Back to top--"The robots are coming, and they are Japanese."--Whole Earth Review
Publishing Data (and editions)
Table of Contents
Preface 7
PART ONE: Introducing the Robot Kingdom and the Robot
1 The Robot Kingdom2 What is a Robot?
PART TWO: Before Industrial Robots: A State of Mind
3 The First Japanese Robot4 Robots of the Imagination
5 The Toy Robot Kingdom
PART THREE: After Industrial Robots: Building the Kingdom
6 Japan Manufactures the Industrial Robot7 An Empire of Yellow Robots
8 The Man-Machine Interface
9 Robots and the Wealth of Nations
PART FOUR: Beyond Industrial Robots
10 Religion and Robots11 Six Legs, Four Legs, Two Legs, or None?
Notes
Bibliography
Index
Credits
Get a Copy
The bad news is that the original paper and hardback ediitons of Inside the Robot Kingdom are now out of print (It's another classic!). Still, used editions can be found quite easily online from vendors such as Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Abe Books, and others. And like they say, Le Roi est mort! Vive le Roi!. There is of course a digital edition available now, and it has new, color photos included! You can get it from a variety of ebook vendors, including the ubiquitous giant, AMAZON.