TOKYO -- Japanese robotics researchers have been a little quiet since Expo 2005 Aichi, a world fair in southwestern Japan that put them in the spotlight. Meanwhile, global robotics technology has rapidly progressed by incorporating information and communications technologies. Can Japan regain its Robot Nation reputation?

Concerns are such that the government has included something called a "robotics-led industrial revolution" in its revitalization strategy. In January at the prime minister's office, Tamotsu Nomakuchi, an executive adviser at Mitsubishi Electric who chairs the government-led Robot Revolution Realization Council, submitted a new robotics strategy to Prime Minister Shinzo Abe. They stressed that 2015 is the year to celebrate the beginning of a robotics revolution.