I recently had the chance to attend a series of lectures by Akira Yamada (personal communication, 12 March 2025), a Japanese diplomat specialising in Japanese pop culture. In them, he mentioned the iconic Astroboy (Tetsuwan Atomu, created by Osamu Tezuka, 1952) and how it has influenced the Japanese conception of new technologies such as robots or artificial intelligence and their incorporation into the work and social environment.
Of course, this is not the only factor that favours the acceptance of technology in the country; traditional animist beliefs such as tsukumogami, objects that develop a consciousness and become spirits after long years of use, or karakuri, elaborate automatons that appeared as early as the 17th century and are commonly considered the precursors of robots, also play a role.
Coming back to this little android, it asks itself questions such as what is humanity or what is science. It reflectiveness and innocence marked a generation and show how Japanese society was back then beginning to view robots. This society is now much more welcoming to introducing robots and virtual co-workers, as well as to leveraging artificial intelligence. Mr. Yamada even suggested that if you were to ask today’s Japanese robotic engineers why they chose their profession, many would likely answer that they wanted to build Astroboy.
Seeing this background, it is easy to understand how Japan has managed to merge its tradition with a futuristic vision, especially in the field of technology. Artificial intelligence and robots are not seen as mere tools, but as part of the team, and they are often given a name of their own.
AI, ethics and sustainability
One of the most relevant debates today is precisely the ethical use of artificial intelligence, along with its applications in sustainability and ecology. As we have already established, Osamu Tezuka’s character Astroboy, first as a manga (1952) and then as an anime (1963) raised deep questions about humanity, science and ethics, while laying the foundations for a unique perception of technology in Japan. But the examples of integration with technology in popular culture do not end there. One of the most popular is probably the charming cosmic cat Doraemon, but so is Digimon, which explores the collaboration between humans and digital creatures in a virtual environment, or One Piece’s cyborg character Franky, not to mention the adorable virtual pets Tamagochi (if you managed to keep them alive).
There are plenty of examples that reflect how the country has approached the matter from a practical perspective. AI has the potential to optimise resources, reduce emissions and improve energy efficiency in sectors such as agriculture, logistics and manufacturing. In factories, hospitals and homes, robots are seen as partners that facilitate tasks and improve life quality. This humanisation of technology in general has also allowed AI to be accepted more naturally, without the fear or distrust that can be observed in other cultures (Robertson, 2018).
For example, in the field of agriculture, AI-based systems make it possible to monitor crops and predict harvests more accurately, reducing water and fertilizer waste (Yoshida, 2021).
However, AI sustainability is not without challenges. Training AI models and maintaining them requires a significant amount of energy, which raises concerns about their carbon footprint. According to a study by Strubell et al. (2019), the training process of a single AI model can emit as much carbon dioxide as five cars during their lifespan. Japan has responded to this challenge by encouraging the development of more efficient data centres and promoting the use of renewable energy to power these infrastructures.
In addition, the country has implemented policies that encourage the creation of more efficient algorithms, capable of performing complex tasks with fewer resources. This approach not only reduces environmental impact, but also aligns technology with the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (UNESCO, 2020).
AI’s Future: Partnership and Responsibility
Japan has shown that artificial intelligence can be an ally in the quest for a more sustainable future, provided it is used responsibly. The key is to balance innovation with ethics and ecology. To achieve this, it is essential for business, government and civil society to work together towards creating regulations and frameworks that ensure a fair and efficient use of the technology.
In this sense, although the perception of AI in Japan is the result of a unique combination of culture, innovation and responsibility, the country offers an interesting model of how to integrate technology into everyday life while keeping in mind its social and environmental implications.
This, in turn, highlights the cultural differences in perception when it comes to implementing artificial intelligence in various fields that we explored in ‘AI Perceptions Across Countries’ and the importance of communication about how AI works to improve its acceptance, as mentioned in the articles in the series ‘How do we perceive the art of artificial intelligence?’ (only available in Spanish for now), ‘People vs. AI’, ‘Online art gallery’ and ‘Eyes Can Tell’.
References
Robertson, J. (2018). Robo Sapiens Japanicus: Robots, Gender, Family, and the Japanese Nation. University of California Press.
Strubell, E., Ganesh, A., & McCallum, A. (2019). Energy and Policy Considerations for Deep Learning in NLP. Proceedings of the 57th Annual Meeting of the Association for Computational Linguistics.
UNESCO. (2020). Artificial Intelligence and Sustainable Development. Recuperado de https://unesdoc.unesco.org
Yamada, A., Curso temático: cultura pop de Japón [Theme course: Japanese Popular Culture] [personal communication, March 12, 2025]. Centro Cultural Hispano Japonés. https://www.centrojapones.es/curso-tematico-032025/Yoshida, K. (2021). AI in Japanese Agriculture: Challenges and Opportunities. Journal of Sustainable Technology, 12(3), 45-58.
