TOKYO (Reuters) - Neurosurgeon Tetsuya Goto
had just begun testing a robot to perform brain
surgery when he discovered Japan was moving
to tighten regulations that would shut down his
seven-year project.
Over the next dozen years he watched in
frustration as the da Vinci, a rival endoscopic
robot that U.S. regulators had already approved,
became a commercial success while his and
other Japanese prototypes languished in
laboratories.
Japan, with the world's largest robot population,
is now awakening to a crisis as its lead in
robotics – one of its last areas of technological
prominence - comes under threat from better-
coordinated efforts in the United States and
Germany, as well as Asian rivals South Korea and
China.
As robots advance from the factory floor into
homes, hospitals, shops and even war zones,
officials hope to spur a new "robotics
revolution" by rewriting rules that researchers
say have stifled innovation.
"We think robotics can make Japan
competitive again," said Atsushi Mano, director
of robotic technology at the trade ministry's
New Energy and Industrial Technology
Development Organization.
The agency has recruited Kawasaki Heavy
Industries and Panasonic Corp to make a rival to
the da Vinci that could perform more intricate
tasks, such as removing pancreatic tumors,
while a surgeon manipulates its controls.
At stake is a fast-growing industry - the market
for industrial robotic systems is worth $29
billion a year worldwide according to the
International Federation of Robotics.
Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said in
June, when he unveiled a framework for
sweeping regulatory reforms, that he expected
Japan's robot market alone to triple to 2.4
trillion yen ($21 billion) by 2020.
Healthcare robotics is tiny now but has vast
potential - such services are expected to
overtake industrial uses within 10 years in the
Japanese robot market.
The new surgical robot, part of a 5 billion yen
medical robotics program that aims to have
products in clinical trials by 2019, should have
an easier time than Goto faced with regulators.
"If you asked the authorities, they wouldn't
say they kept medical devices from reaching the
market, but as far as academics and companies
are concerned they stopped Japanese research
cold," said Goto, a professor at Shinshu
University in central Japan.
Abe, who has called a snap election for next
month to seek a renewed mandate for his
"Abenomics" economic policies, has promised
deregulation and structural reform to foster
industrial growth as a two-year stimulus drive
falters.
RIVAL ROBOTS
A key trigger to action was Google Inc's surprise
acquisition a year ago of Schaft, a venture led
by two former Tokyo University professors who
developed a humanoid robot that handily won a
rescue competition run by a research unit of the
U.S. Department of Defense. The robot had to
drive a utility vehicle and climb a ladder to
prevail against more than a dozen rivals.
"Everyone associates bipedal robots with Japan
so it was a shock that even that was being
pulled away," said Waseda University Professor
Masakatsu Fujie.
The U.S. robotics industry has been powered
in large part by the military, which provides
funding and field testing for drones and disaster-
relief robots, while Silicon Valley has nurtured
innovations in artificial intelligence and
autonomous systems such as Google's self-
driving car.
"To be honest, the U.S. is a concern," said
Osamu Sudo, who helped to craft Japan's
robotics strategy as director of the industrial
machinery division at the trade ministry, where
he served until early July.
Other countries are also pushing robotics to the
forefront of industrial policy: China, where sales
grew 32-fold over the last decade to eclipse
Japan as the biggest robot market in 2013, aims
to make one-third of its own robots by 2015.
South Korea has a five-year plan to spend $500
million a year on its robotics industry, while the
European Union has earmarked 100 million
euros ($125 million) a year to its Horizon 2020
program that aims to pull in a further 2 billion
euros annually in private funding.
Japan is trying to keep up: ministries have
requested 16 billion yen ($138 million) for direct
investment in robotics in the next fiscal year.
But success will depend largely on reforming a
fragmented regulatory process that can set
insurmountable hurdles by mandating absolute
safety, said Atsuo Takanishi, a professor at
Waseda University specializing in robotics.
The trade ministry has convinced health
ministry officials to relax certification
procedures for medical devices and introduce
affordable robots to nursing homes on a trial
basis.
It also pushed for an international safety
standard for care robots that Panasonic Corp
cleared in February with a robotic nursing bed
that folds up into a wheelchair, eliminating the
need for care-givers to lift their patients.
With the freeing of regulations, Kiyoshi
Sawaki, who recently replaced Sudo as head of
the trade ministry's industrial machinery
division, is confident that the government has
created sufficient opportunities to succeed in
robotics.
"The approval process is being simplified," he
said. "So companies can't use the same excuses
that they did before."
