Paper short abstract:

This paper examines the development of the Japanese government’s approach to AI governance and ethics, based on an analysis of official guidelines and policy documents as well as semi-structured interviews with several of the architects of Japan’s AI policies who helped write them.

Paper long abstract:

Over the past decade, the Japanese government has released a series of guidelines and policy documents setting out positions on the ethics and governance of AI, culminating in the 2019 publication of the “Social Principles of Human-Centric AI” and a new national AI Strategy. Amid the recent global scramble to develop AI governance rules and ethical frameworks, Japan has aimed to take a leadership role in their international agreement and harmonisation, brokering broad consensus on basic ethical and governance principles at the OECD and G7, and actively promoting these principles at venues including the Council of Europe and the Global Partnership on AI.

A central element of the documents is their presentation of AI as both a product and an agent of radical societal transformation. They talk of building an “AI-Ready Society”, a “human-centered ‘Wisdom Network Society’”, a “robot society”, and a “super-smart” “Society 5.0” in which cyberspace and physical space are seamlessly integrated. While AI is expected to transform society, society must first be transformed to prepare the ground for AI, in order to achieve a pluralist, internationalist, and utopian future in which “national borders, industries, academia, governments, race, gender, nationality, age, political convictions and religion” are transcended, in order to achieve “total globalization” (Social Principles 2019).

This paper examines the development of the Japanese government’s approach to AI governance and ethics, based on an analysis of key documents as well as semi-structured interviews with several of the architects of Japan’s AI policies who helped write them. It explores in what ways and to what extent the techno-futurist rhetoric of internationalism and radical societal transformation contained in the documents connects with the Japanese government’s wider conservative yet technocratic vision (Robertson 2018), considers what socio-technical imaginaries (Jasanoff and Kim 2015) are being constructed through such visions of the future, and looks at how firmly grounded they are in the reality of development communities and practices in Japan.

Paper short abstract:

Drawing on the case of Japan and on 30 interviews with stakeholders, this paper interrogates how those engaged in developing and using AI and robotic applications in health and social care characterise the future promise, potential and challenges of using these technologies.

Paper long abstract:

Socially assistive robotics (SAR) finds application in healthcare and therapy, where so-called 'social robots' are often targeted to older adults (Broadbent et al. 2009) and children and adults affected by autism spectrum disorder (ASD) (Scassellati et al. 2012; Pop et al. 2013). These machines are aimed to provide social, emotional and cognitive as well as physical rehabilitation (Lara et al. 2017); encourage healthier life-styles (Kidd & Breazeal 2007); remind people to take their medications (Pineau et al. 2003); allow tele-medicine support for users living in remote areas (Robinson et al. 2014); provide companionship and stimulate human-robot interactions as well as interactions between residents of care homes to reduce feelings of loneliness (Wada & Shibata 2007). Over the past two decades, zoomorphic robots like Paro (a robotic baby seal) and humanoid robots like Softbank's Pepper have found application not only in Japan but also elsewhere, including the US and Europe. Recently, the COVID-19 pandemic gave further momentum to the 'AI hype', driving the development and adaptation of AI and robotic innovations in health and social care (Jecker 2020). In June 2020, Aymerich-Franch (2020), editor of Nature Machine Intelligence, commented: "With physical distancing and isolation measures deemed critical to slow the spread of COVID-19, social robots have finally found an opportunity to demonstrate their real value in society." Drawing on the case of Japan - which is the leading country in the production of SAR - and on 30 interviews with stakeholders based in the UK, Europe, USA, Australia, and New Zealand, this paper interrogates how those engaged in developing and using AI and robotic applications in health and social care characterise the future promise, potential and challenges of using these technologies. It explores, in particular, the complex ways in which these professionals articulate and navigate a range of high and low expectations and promissory and cautionary future visions around AI and robotic technologies to construct their own perceptions of (socially and ethically) 'acceptable futures' for these technologies in health and social care contexts.

Paper short abstract:

Machines are already embedded in our lives but as we start to treat them as if they are almost human, we may begin to develop habits that cause us to treat humans as almost machines. We need to consider not only what social robots can do but also what humans will become by interacting with machines.

Paper long abstract:

Japan is a hyper-aging society; it has one of the highest life expectancies in the world and is undergoing a demographic transition that Western nations have yet to experience. The Japanese government is encouraging robotic solutions to address its elder care labor shortage, and authorities have therefore adopted an agenda of introducing social robots. However, increasing numbers of people in Japan are becoming emotionally attached to anthropomorphic machines, and their introduction into elder care may thus be perceived as contentious by elders, caregivers, and family members. By exploring human engagement with social robots in the care context, this presentation argues that rapid technological advances in the twenty-first century will see robots achieve some level of agency, contributing to human society by carving out unique roles for themselves and by bonding with humans. Nevertheless, the questions remain of whether there should be a difference between humans attributing agency to a being and those beings having the inherent ability to produce agency and how we might understand that difference if unable to access the minds of other humans, let alone nonhumans, some of which are not even alive in the classical sense. Using the example of an interaction between an elderly woman and a social robot, I engage with these questions; discuss linguistic, attributed, and inherent agencies; and suggest that a processual type of agency might be most appropriate for understanding human-robot interaction. Machines are already embedded in our lives, but, as we start to treat machines as if they are almost human, we may begin to develop habits that cause us to treat humans as almost machines. We therefore need to consider not only what social robots can do, both now and in the future, but also what humans will become by increasingly forming relationships with machines. I suggest that elderly people can develop an emotional attachment to social robots by attributing agency to them, and, as machine-learning routines grow more sophisticated, those robots will eventually interact with humans in such an insightful way that the division between attributed and inherent nonhuman agency might become meaningless.

Paper short abstract:

This paper reports the findings from a tri-country questionnaire study that was carried out to examine potential home-care robot users’ perceptions toward development and social implementation of such robots in Japan, Ireland, and Finland. The paper’s focus will be placed on older people’s views.

Paper long abstract:

Since the Robot Revolution Initiative Council was established by the Cabinet Office of Japan in 2015, there have been a plethora of policy initiatives and investment to encourage the use of intelligent machines in various domains including health care. It is estimated that there will be a shortage of 370,000 nurses and care professionals to accommodate ageing population by 2025. Considering the large-scale change in society, integrating robots and ICT technology into care provision and daily life has been given serious thought in Japan.

The surveys in Japan often show that a majority considered the use of robots promising in the areas of healthcare and care for older people. However, there is still a strongly held belief that such technologies should not be part of human and personal care services such as older people’s care. In addition, there has been little research targeted at potential immediate users, including older people in receipt of care, and carers and care professionals on the frontline. It is essential to ask not only about their willingness to use home-care robots, but also about their readiness to participate in research and development of such technologies.

Against this background, the team of interdisciplinary researchers in Japan conducted questionnaire surveys with a specific focus on immediate (potential) users of care robots (older people, family carers and care professionals) in 2017 and 2018/2019. The first questionnaire was conducted only in Japan, while the second questionnaire included those three groups in three countries (Japan, Ireland and Finland). This paper reports on the second comparative study, with a particular focus on older people’s perceptions.

Older people in Japan showed a higher level of familiarity with robots, while the common concern among all respondents in the three countries was safety. There are other similarities and differences, and our findings suggest that it is essential to devise optimal strategies for the development and social implementation of home-care robots by incorporating various perspectives including familiarity with robots, family relationships, and care policies while valuing universal human dignity.

This work was supported by Pfizer Health Research Foundation, International Joint Research.