Seriously? The invention is about some Hollywood-cliché Asian "loss of face" thing?
How about this instead: Some researchers experimented with a technology for the sake of discovery, and in doing so, listed potential applications that reflect the researchers' own brainstorming, and not necessarily the opinions or ideas of "the Japanese" (who, I wager, were most definitely not consulted in the matter).
It's a more reasonable scenario than people developing technology expressly to combat "unspeakable loss of status".
(Incidentally, why is Mr Akusake shouting so much, anyway? Maybe he's demanding to know how he got that un-Japanese name. : )
I've lived in Japan for 30+ years (hey, I'm here now!), and conversation here is conversation. Silly, contrived anecdotes by self-described "experts in cross-cultural communication", who need to fill their books or speeches with *something*, just make me laugh. "Tennis vs bowling"? Aye yi yi.
I know, you're just repeating what you've heard. No harm there. Just be skeptical of claims, especially those involving unmeasurable, fluffy things like "conversational ballgames".
Sounds about right. But for the record, over here in Japan –and I'm assuming you're not here –there are plenty of people who have taken this bizarre idea from the media, and have expanded it into a mini-dogma with unequivocal claims that "the Japanese" have a "special relationship with robots" due to dolls and Shinto religion and Astro-Boy cartoons and whatever else seems to make muddled sense at the moment, and that "Westerners" are literally terrified of robots because of "Christian hang-ups" and yadda yadda. Jump ahead a few years to the present, and it's now being parroted, with no questions asked, by media overseas, print media in Japan (including non-Japanese publications), and even national news broadcasts any time a story related to robots comes up.
That's what my reaction is aimed at: not a single BBC article, but this meme taking strong roots. (It may seem a really obscure topic from where you sit, but it might be one of those things you suddenly start seeing all over, now that it's come to your notice...)
It's pretty harmless stuff. It's insulting to robot researchers and enthusiasts around the world, but trivial all the same. So why bother poking fun at it? *shrug* Because the meme is demonstrably false; that's reason enough. Never hurts to keep in practice with the question, "Wait a sec –is this thing we're hearing *true*?"
"In Japan robots are friendly helpers not Terminators."
This idiotic meme just won't die, thanks to eternally lazy reporters. Tip to the BBC: Outside of Japan, robots are not Terminators. The Terminator was a movie character. It's fiction. Get it?
Here in the real world, people and companies outside of Japan are falling all over themselves researching, building, and commercializing robots as home helpers, caretakers, special-needs assistants, workers, and more –the same as in Japan. Sorry, BBC, but if you want to claim there's some magical difference in Japan, you have to demonstrate it, not just assert it.
From my home in Tokyo, where I can assure you the average person has zero daily contact with helper-type robots, I got so tired of this meme I ripped it apart at http://www.homejapan.com/japan-and-robots . The robot-loving "Westerners" I describe should feel mighty familiar to Slashdot readers (who, unlike the BBC, are probably smart enough to get that "OMG robots are evil Terminators!" is the stuff of jokes and movies, not the attitude of real people).
But you're probably familiar with all the points in favor of Chinese characters, such as the vast richness they add to the written language, and even the way they arguably make reading easier and faster (once learned thoroughly enough). I myself vote to keep 'em (but then again, I would vote that way, having put in the time to learn 'em : ).
I cringe a bit every time a story like this pops up. Here come the myths, the misinformation, the wild exaggerations... Life was easier before the "anime/manga" fans took up their little obsession.
Well, let's be positive: This is a learning & teaching experience, right? So for the interested, a bit of debunking about Japanese:
1) "Kanji" is not a language. I know, I haven't seen anyone on this page make that mistake, so I'm not pointing a finger at anyone here. Just at people out there who do think "kanji" is the name of the language – like Steve Jobs in his keynote a couple days ago. I had to write a debunking: http://www.homejapan.com/japanese-language-is-not-kanji
2) Japanese does NOT use "three writing systems". (That claim does appear on this page.) Japanese uses ONE writing system. Precisely one. No more, no less. It contains multiple character sets, including Chinese characters (aka kanji), home-grown "kana" phonetic characters (with two variants, hiragana & katakana), punctuation & typographic symbols (including some from European languages), and Arabic numerals. Those all combine to form exactly ONE writing system.
It's nothing special. English uses multiple character sets, including Latin letters (with two variants, upper case & lower case), punctuation & typographic symbols, and Arabic numerals. All of which combine to form ONE writing system.
I haven't written a post on this one yet, but definitely need to. That "three writing systems" is a really common misconception. (Comment by Moridineas is very much on the right track, pointing out that the jumble of features and origins found in the Japanese writing system is just the normal way human language rolls.)
3) "OMG Japanese is so hard." Well, that's purely opinion, so I won't say it's right or wrong or a misconception or anything. I'll just add that there are learners with precisely the opposite opinion: I call it a wonderfully easy language to learn! There are plenty of reasons; see http://www.homejapan.com/2008/02/whats_easy_about_learning_japanese .
Lots more linguistic debunking at my site. But I'll refrain from further boring the good people here.
So, anyway. Fascinating stuff, and actually it's nice to see so many people take an interest. Let's just watch the exaggerations and stick to reality. (Yeah, like that'll happen. Who am I kidding? : )
I can't believe this - yet another "the iPhone failed in Japan" article with NO SALES DATA to support the claim. Maybe it is selling slowly here in Japan. Maybe flopping miserably. But why make that claim with no numbers to back it up? Get the numbers first!
There are other reasons why Softbank might cut the price. End-of-season (that'd be now) goals. Inventory clearance for a new model. Or the biggest reason of all: a lousy economy. If the iPhone is sluggish in Japan, it's not the only thing; everyone from Toyota on down is bleeding money and laying off workers as sales slump for just about everything.
Even in a good economy, maybe the iPhone wouldn't succeed here. Maybe it would. Sadly, without any data upon which to base intelligent comments, we're still going to get non-stop uninformed punditry about market potential and breathless unproven claims of "cultural differences".
"It is - quite clearly - implicit in this claim, from your original post."
Er, no. Not a whit. If I am speaking for someone other than myself - implicitly or otherwise - then here's a simple question for you: Whom do I appear to be speaking for?
Honestly, I can't even guess what person/group you have in mind.
As for responding to all the rest: I fear we're both going to sound like pedantic parodies along the lines of The Comic Book Guy, so let's jump on the point of agreement: Be skeptical.
It's good advice in any field, including "cultural differences" - even when we have a person from Country X making claims about Nationality X. Common sense "show me why I should believe that" should still apply. (Smart observers have called the failure to do so "taxi driver syndrome" - as in, "My East Whatsitian taxi driver told me about East Whatsit poltics/economy/belief systems, so it must be true!")
So does Google Streetview present some special "cultural insensitivity" unique to Japan? We've got the claim, and it very well could have merit, but IMHO the claimant hasn't shown any support for it beyond "I say so". Until that changes, skepticism keeps me from believing it. You, others, and/or Google are of course free to make what you wish of the claim!
I'm "speaking for the cultural mindset of millions of strangers"?? Where? How? Where do I speak for any ONE person other than myself??? Are you responding to someone else's post?
Anyway, as pointed out, the person making the claim for some existence - Leprechauns, unicorns, a deity, a "cultural difference", etc. - is the one that bears the burden of proof. How to prove this particular "difference"? Frankly, it's the claim-maker that should have done the initial work, in explaining what proof there is for his claim. And before he can claim *why* things are different in Japan, he needs to show that they actually *are* different - something that could be addressed with numbers in several ways.
Is there some survey data showing more anger in Japan over this privacy issue? Any data showing more hubbub over photo-related privacy issues in general? Is the resistance to Google Streetview on a measurably larger scale in Japan? We're talking sociology, so "proof" will likely be fuzzy - but it'd be something to work with. The claimant in this case gives us nothing.
In any case, a key point: I don't have to make a choice between a) my explaining what empirical proof is needed to believe this claim; and b) my believing the claim! I'm free to choose c) disbelieve the claim until the claimant shows his proof and can explain why that constitutes proof. That should be any critical thinker's default choice!
"Japanese exceptionalism is irritating - but no worse than British, US, French or Israeli exceptionalism..."
Any exceptionalism is irritating, agreed. And yes, the "Japanese" version would not be special in any way I'm aware of.
"... and it should not blind one to the very real differences that exist amongst the cultures."
Real differences... such as? A "real difference" regarding the topic at hand - "cultural sensitivity" and Google Streetview - would be an interesting thing, but first must be proven to exist!
How can one reliably see "real" cultural differences when one accepts any unproven claim as real? That way lies blindness, indeed!
I read the letter in question by Osamu Higuchi. Like nearly all entries in the "culturally opposite ways of thinking" category, it's a bunch of assertion backed by NO PROOF.
Concerned people everywhere in the world have pointed out Higuchi's same privacy concerns about Google Street View. While millions more around the world - including in Japan! - aren't concerned enough to say a word. Where's the difference? Show me EMPIRICALLY.
As a resident of Japan for over 20 years, I get so tired of "we're so different" claims that are backed by nothing more than the speaker's desperate wish for it to be true. (Unfortunately, I fear that other people will pick up on Higuchi's blather and shout "me too!", just because it scratches that itch for "cultural difference" posturing. )
Folks, feel free to ignore this nonsense. Until someone proves otherwise, there's nothing different going on in Japan here. (And always, ALWAYS, treat with utmost skepticism anyone claiming out of the blue to speak for the "cultural mindset" of tens of millions of strangers, nearly all of whom wouldn't known the talker from a hole in the ground.)
It's pathetic that anyone would hold to such dumb stereotypes any more.
It's sad that a reporter can't write about the great works of a creative, talented man, without a bunch of doofuses latching onto his nationality (of all trivial, meaningless things) and obsessing over its imagined importance. There's a whole thread on this forming below, with people tossing anecdotes back and forth (as if that ever meant anything).
I welcome the day when everyone understands the simple truth that things like video games are made by *people* and *organizations*, not giant nation-states. In this discussion of Mr Miyamoto and his work, nationality is absolutely, utterly irrelevant.
Poster above: I don't see you as holding that "Japanese creative" stereotype, so the above comment isn't directed at you. The next one *is*:
Contrary to what you suggest, "we" do not "associate... creativity" in any given way. Whatever that "we" is supposed to mean - "Westerners" or whatever - a "we" doesn't exist. There is no culturo-socio-national consensus on how "we" "associate creativity".
Sheesh. Can we - meaning all humankind - drop this rubbish already?
I agree, MagikSlinger, there's a lot of crud on 2ch (and other Japanese BBS-style blogs I've read); low signal-to-noise. It's the kind of noise that makes a newbie feel he's missing a lot of subsurface meaning... but after a while, it becomes clear there's really just a lot of mindless keyboard-banging.
(*Some* forums, *some* threads, of course. There's good stuff too.)
I think the WIRED article overall tries too hard - as "cultural comparison" pieces usually do - to sell the exotic "so different from us" angle, at the expense of factuality. The subject of the article, Nishimura, is genuinely interesting; the sideline "Japanese Internet is, like, so weird!" angle is overblown. All in the interest of telling a good story, I know...
I picked some bones with the WIRED article here http://www.homejapan.com/2008/05/wired_on_cultural_differences_tell_em_what_they_want_to_hear and so won't bore this discussion with further opining. But for anyone who cares, this particular Internet nobody contends that "cultural difference" pieces always need to be taken with heaping spoonfuls of salt. There's too much interest among writers in concocting a good story, and too little desire among readers to cast a critical eye toward claims.
I've had enough of this silliness; like a few other wise voices here, I'm calling BS on this "special Japanese openness to robots" nonsense that gets repeated verbatim from one lazy press article to another.
There is, in fact, plenty of robotic research and deployment going on in Japan. No argument there. But there isn't a lick of evidence to support some psycho-socio-cultural "special relationship", or its equally laughable imaginary counterpart, "Western fear of robots". (Everyone here who's afraid of robots, raise your hand.... I thought so.)
I'll save the forum my blathering; anyone interested can read all about it at Culturology Myth Debunked: Japan's "Special Relationship" with Robots.http://www.homejapan.com/robot_myth
Slashdot Mirror
Seriously? The invention is about some Hollywood-cliché Asian "loss of face" thing?
How about this instead: Some researchers experimented with a technology for the sake of discovery, and in doing so, listed potential applications that reflect the researchers' own brainstorming, and not necessarily the opinions or ideas of "the Japanese" (who, I wager, were most definitely not consulted in the matter).
It's a more reasonable scenario than people developing technology expressly to combat "unspeakable loss of status".
(Incidentally, why is Mr Akusake shouting so much, anyway? Maybe he's demanding to know how he got that un-Japanese name. : )
I've lived in Japan for 30+ years (hey, I'm here now!), and conversation here is conversation. Silly, contrived anecdotes by self-described "experts in cross-cultural communication", who need to fill their books or speeches with *something*, just make me laugh. "Tennis vs bowling"? Aye yi yi.
I know, you're just repeating what you've heard. No harm there. Just be skeptical of claims, especially those involving unmeasurable, fluffy things like "conversational ballgames".
baseball
robot
not Japan
Interesting...
Considering that the "robots = Japan" meme is bogus, there's no surprise at all.
How do you recognize this spider? It's the one with nine legs, of course.
Sounds about right. But for the record, over here in Japan –and I'm assuming you're not here –there are plenty of people who have taken this bizarre idea from the media, and have expanded it into a mini-dogma with unequivocal claims that "the Japanese" have a "special relationship with robots" due to dolls and Shinto religion and Astro-Boy cartoons and whatever else seems to make muddled sense at the moment, and that "Westerners" are literally terrified of robots because of "Christian hang-ups" and yadda yadda. Jump ahead a few years to the present, and it's now being parroted, with no questions asked, by media overseas, print media in Japan (including non-Japanese publications), and even national news broadcasts any time a story related to robots comes up.
That's what my reaction is aimed at: not a single BBC article, but this meme taking strong roots. (It may seem a really obscure topic from where you sit, but it might be one of those things you suddenly start seeing all over, now that it's come to your notice...)
It's pretty harmless stuff. It's insulting to robot researchers and enthusiasts around the world, but trivial all the same. So why bother poking fun at it? *shrug* Because the meme is demonstrably false; that's reason enough. Never hurts to keep in practice with the question, "Wait a sec –is this thing we're hearing *true*?"
That about wraps it up. Cheerio!
The BBC wrote its article as a joke?
"In Japan robots are friendly helpers not Terminators."
This idiotic meme just won't die, thanks to eternally lazy reporters. Tip to the BBC: Outside of Japan, robots are not Terminators. The Terminator was a movie character. It's fiction. Get it?
Here in the real world, people and companies outside of Japan are falling all over themselves researching, building, and commercializing robots as home helpers, caretakers, special-needs assistants, workers, and more –the same as in Japan. Sorry, BBC, but if you want to claim there's some magical difference in Japan, you have to demonstrate it, not just assert it.
From my home in Tokyo, where I can assure you the average person has zero daily contact with helper-type robots, I got so tired of this meme I ripped it apart at http://www.homejapan.com/japan-and-robots . The robot-loving "Westerners" I describe should feel mighty familiar to Slashdot readers (who, unlike the BBC, are probably smart enough to get that "OMG robots are evil Terminators!" is the stuff of jokes and movies, not the attitude of real people).
"For someone acquiring a non-native language, the difficulty of that second language is entirely dependent on that person's first language."
Yes indeed. Japanese, for example, may be the *easiest* foreign language you could study if you're already fluent in Korean.
Certainly, kanji is one of the difficulties – I name it one of the three things a person would find hard about learning Japanese ( http://www.homejapan.com/2008/02/whats_hard_about_learning_japanese ). It's a heck of a lot of work for Japanese/Chinese speakers, too.
But you're probably familiar with all the points in favor of Chinese characters, such as the vast richness they add to the written language, and even the way they arguably make reading easier and faster (once learned thoroughly enough). I myself vote to keep 'em (but then again, I would vote that way, having put in the time to learn 'em : ).
I cringe a bit every time a story like this pops up. Here come the myths, the misinformation, the wild exaggerations... Life was easier before the "anime/manga" fans took up their little obsession.
Well, let's be positive: This is a learning & teaching experience, right? So for the interested, a bit of debunking about Japanese:
1) "Kanji" is not a language.
I know, I haven't seen anyone on this page make that mistake, so I'm not pointing a finger at anyone here. Just at people out there who do think "kanji" is the name of the language – like Steve Jobs in his keynote a couple days ago. I had to write a debunking: http://www.homejapan.com/japanese-language-is-not-kanji
2) Japanese does NOT use "three writing systems". (That claim does appear on this page.)
Japanese uses ONE writing system. Precisely one. No more, no less. It contains multiple character sets, including Chinese characters (aka kanji), home-grown "kana" phonetic characters (with two variants, hiragana & katakana), punctuation & typographic symbols (including some from European languages), and Arabic numerals. Those all combine to form exactly ONE writing system.
It's nothing special. English uses multiple character sets, including Latin letters (with two variants, upper case & lower case), punctuation & typographic symbols, and Arabic numerals. All of which combine to form ONE writing system.
I haven't written a post on this one yet, but definitely need to. That "three writing systems" is a really common misconception. (Comment by Moridineas is very much on the right track, pointing out that the jumble of features and origins found in the Japanese writing system is just the normal way human language rolls.)
3) "OMG Japanese is so hard." Well, that's purely opinion, so I won't say it's right or wrong or a misconception or anything. I'll just add that there are learners with precisely the opposite opinion: I call it a wonderfully easy language to learn! There are plenty of reasons; see http://www.homejapan.com/2008/02/whats_easy_about_learning_japanese .
Lots more linguistic debunking at my site. But I'll refrain from further boring the good people here.
So, anyway. Fascinating stuff, and actually it's nice to see so many people take an interest. Let's just watch the exaggerations and stick to reality. (Yeah, like that'll happen. Who am I kidding? : )
"fluff... flecks of dead skin, fat, sweat and dust..."
So they found the Vista source code. Meh.
I can't believe this - yet another "the iPhone failed in Japan" article with NO SALES DATA to support the claim. Maybe it is selling slowly here in Japan. Maybe flopping miserably. But why make that claim with no numbers to back it up? Get the numbers first!
There are other reasons why Softbank might cut the price. End-of-season (that'd be now) goals. Inventory clearance for a new model. Or the biggest reason of all: a lousy economy. If the iPhone is sluggish in Japan, it's not the only thing; everyone from Toyota on down is bleeding money and laying off workers as sales slump for just about everything.
Even in a good economy, maybe the iPhone wouldn't succeed here. Maybe it would. Sadly, without any data upon which to base intelligent comments, we're still going to get non-stop uninformed punditry about market potential and breathless unproven claims of "cultural differences".
"It is - quite clearly - implicit in this claim, from your original post."
Er, no. Not a whit. If I am speaking for someone other than myself - implicitly or otherwise - then here's a simple question for you: Whom do I appear to be speaking for?
Honestly, I can't even guess what person/group you have in mind.
As for responding to all the rest: I fear we're both going to sound like pedantic parodies along the lines of The Comic Book Guy, so let's jump on the point of agreement: Be skeptical.
It's good advice in any field, including "cultural differences" - even when we have a person from Country X making claims about Nationality X. Common sense "show me why I should believe that" should still apply. (Smart observers have called the failure to do so "taxi driver syndrome" - as in, "My East Whatsitian taxi driver told me about East Whatsit poltics/economy/belief systems, so it must be true!")
So does Google Streetview present some special "cultural insensitivity" unique to Japan? We've got the claim, and it very well could have merit, but IMHO the claimant hasn't shown any support for it beyond "I say so". Until that changes, skepticism keeps me from believing it. You, others, and/or Google are of course free to make what you wish of the claim!
Er, yes; he may be wrong about his assertion of a "cultural difference" in Japan vis a vis this issue. That's the point. Glad we agree!
I'm "speaking for the cultural mindset of millions of strangers"?? Where? How? Where do I speak for any ONE person other than myself??? Are you responding to someone else's post?
Anyway, as pointed out, the person making the claim for some existence - Leprechauns, unicorns, a deity, a "cultural difference", etc. - is the one that bears the burden of proof. How to prove this particular "difference"? Frankly, it's the claim-maker that should have done the initial work, in explaining what proof there is for his claim. And before he can claim *why* things are different in Japan, he needs to show that they actually *are* different - something that could be addressed with numbers in several ways.
Is there some survey data showing more anger in Japan over this privacy issue? Any data showing more hubbub over photo-related privacy issues in general? Is the resistance to Google Streetview on a measurably larger scale in Japan? We're talking sociology, so "proof" will likely be fuzzy - but it'd be something to work with. The claimant in this case gives us nothing.
In any case, a key point: I don't have to make a choice between a) my explaining what empirical proof is needed to believe this claim; and b) my believing the claim! I'm free to choose c) disbelieve the claim until the claimant shows his proof and can explain why that constitutes proof. That should be any critical thinker's default choice!
"Japanese exceptionalism is irritating - but no worse than British, US, French or Israeli exceptionalism..."
Any exceptionalism is irritating, agreed. And yes, the "Japanese" version would not be special in any way I'm aware of.
"... and it should not blind one to the very real differences that exist amongst the cultures."
Real differences... such as? A "real difference" regarding the topic at hand - "cultural sensitivity" and Google Streetview - would be an interesting thing, but first must be proven to exist!
How can one reliably see "real" cultural differences when one accepts any unproven claim as real? That way lies blindness, indeed!
I read the letter in question by Osamu Higuchi. Like nearly all entries in the "culturally opposite ways of thinking" category, it's a bunch of assertion backed by NO PROOF.
Concerned people everywhere in the world have pointed out Higuchi's same privacy concerns about Google Street View. While millions more around the world - including in Japan! - aren't concerned enough to say a word. Where's the difference? Show me EMPIRICALLY.
As a resident of Japan for over 20 years, I get so tired of "we're so different" claims that are backed by nothing more than the speaker's desperate wish for it to be true. (Unfortunately, I fear that other people will pick up on Higuchi's blather and shout "me too!", just because it scratches that itch for "cultural difference" posturing. )
Folks, feel free to ignore this nonsense. Until someone proves otherwise, there's nothing different going on in Japan here. (And always, ALWAYS, treat with utmost skepticism anyone claiming out of the blue to speak for the "cultural mindset" of tens of millions of strangers, nearly all of whom wouldn't known the talker from a hole in the ground.)
Hard to "learn Japanese business culture?" Come on, there's nothing wacky going on there.
As for the language: Reading and writing take a long time, but there's nothing overly difficult about it as a spoken language.
A little reading for the interested, re what's hard and easy about learning the language:
http://www.homejapan.com/blog/siteowner/2008/02/whats_hard_about_learning_japanese
http://www.homejapan.com/blog/siteowner/2008/02/whats_easy_about_learning_japanese
It's pathetic that anyone would hold to such dumb stereotypes any more.
It's sad that a reporter can't write about the great works of a creative, talented man, without a bunch of doofuses latching onto his nationality (of all trivial, meaningless things) and obsessing over its imagined importance. There's a whole thread on this forming below, with people tossing anecdotes back and forth (as if that ever meant anything).
I welcome the day when everyone understands the simple truth that things like video games are made by *people* and *organizations*, not giant nation-states. In this discussion of Mr Miyamoto and his work, nationality is absolutely, utterly irrelevant.
Poster above: I don't see you as holding that "Japanese creative" stereotype, so the above comment isn't directed at you. The next one *is*:
Contrary to what you suggest, "we" do not "associate... creativity" in any given way. Whatever that "we" is supposed to mean - "Westerners" or whatever - a "we" doesn't exist. There is no culturo-socio-national consensus on how "we" "associate creativity".
Sheesh. Can we - meaning all humankind - drop this rubbish already?
Posting here too late to be read, probably, but:
I agree, MagikSlinger, there's a lot of crud on 2ch (and other Japanese BBS-style blogs I've read); low signal-to-noise. It's the kind of noise that makes a newbie feel he's missing a lot of subsurface meaning... but after a while, it becomes clear there's really just a lot of mindless keyboard-banging.
(*Some* forums, *some* threads, of course. There's good stuff too.)
I think the WIRED article overall tries too hard - as "cultural comparison" pieces usually do - to sell the exotic "so different from us" angle, at the expense of factuality. The subject of the article, Nishimura, is genuinely interesting; the sideline "Japanese Internet is, like, so weird!" angle is overblown. All in the interest of telling a good story, I know...
I picked some bones with the WIRED article here
http://www.homejapan.com/2008/05/wired_on_cultural_differences_tell_em_what_they_want_to_hear
and so won't bore this discussion with further opining. But for anyone who cares, this particular Internet nobody contends that "cultural difference" pieces always need to be taken with heaping spoonfuls of salt. There's too much interest among writers in concocting a good story, and too little desire among readers to cast a critical eye toward claims.
There is, in fact, plenty of robotic research and deployment going on in Japan. No argument there. But there isn't a lick of evidence to support some psycho-socio-cultural "special relationship", or its equally laughable imaginary counterpart, "Western fear of robots". (Everyone here who's afraid of robots, raise your hand.... I thought so.)
I'll save the forum my blathering; anyone interested can read all about it at Culturology Myth Debunked: Japan's "Special Relationship" with Robots. http://www.homejapan.com/robot_myth
There! Harumph! Bugger all!