Cosima Wagner

Goethe-Universität, Frankfurt am Main, Germany

“Technology-otaku” and “robot loving nation”? Exploring the recent discourse on robots and robotics in Japan

Summary

The concept of and positive attitude towards robots in Japan is in most studies attributed to the long history of robots in Japan since the 16^th century, the great influence of pop-cultural robot icons and a “techno-animistic character trait” of the Japanese people. The lecture questions these “classical” arguments for the popularity of robots in Japan and will shed a new and more differentiated light on this discussion. While exploring the socio-cultural background of the creation and use of technological artifacts like robots in Japan, it also aims to initiate a discussion between the humanities and natural sciences about the influence of culture on the development of robot technology.

Resume

Cosima Wagner received her Master degree in Japanese Studies and History from the Free University of Berlin, Germany in 2001 and her PhD in Japanese Studies from the Goethe-University of Frankfurt, Germany, in 2008.

From February 2001 to March 2003 she worked as an assistant to the Vice President Internal Audit of Sony Europe in Berlin / Germany. In April 2003 she went back to university as a research assistant, first at the Japanese Studies dept. of Leipzig-University and since October 2003 at the Japanese Studies dept. of Goethe-University in Frankfurt / Germany.

In her thesis on „Robotopia Nipponica – Research into the acceptance of robots in Japan“ she discussed the popularity of „social“ robots in Japan with a cultural sciences perspective on the development and use of technology.

Since 2000 she is co-speaker of the Section „Cultural and Media Studies“ of the VSJF (German Association for Social Science Research on Japan).

Her research interests include cultural sciences perspectives on technology with a special focus on robotics in Japan, history of everyday life and consumption history of Japan, history of objects and social change in Japan and the global fad of Japanese pop culture.