世論 What Japan Thinks

MyVoice recently published this survey regarding home robots. For me personally, all this robot stuff is very gimmicky; static sensor arrays would be much more useful for almost all purposes (except for vaccuuming of course), and the cost of static machinery is far lower that making some virtually useless moving guard robot, given today’s, or even tomorrow’s technology. However, with almost two-thirds of respondents failing to register anxiety at the robotisation of the home, and half keen on welcoming them into their homes, surely this is nothing but another win for the Lizard Alliance and the RoTM™?

MyVoice surveyed 17,958 people registered in the MyVoice community; 42% male and 39% in their thirties. The results are as follows:

Q1: Do you think you’d want to use a robot in your home?

I absolutely want to use	13.9%
I probably want to use	36.0%
I can’t say whether I want to or not	29.6%
I don’t really want to use	12.2%
I absolutely don’t want to use	8.3%

Q2: What sort of robot functions do you want to use? (Multiple answer)

Cleaning the house	58.4%
Crime prevention	55.3%
Home minding	39.2%
Tidying up after meals	34.4%
Clothes washing	26.8%
Ironing	23.1%
Cooking	22.1%
Carrying baggage	21.8%
Healing	19.9%
Play	18.9%
Nursing	17.7%
Driving car	16.9%
Work or study help	15.3%
Communication or chat	15.1%
Health management	12.0%
Child minding or child eduction	10.4%
Others	2.2%
I don’t want to use a robot	11.3%
No answer	0.2%

Note: the difference between “crime prevention” and “home minding” is probably that “crime prevention” implies detection of intruders, whereas “home minding” is more just monitoring the house, answering the phone or the door, watching the cat, etc.

Q3: If you bought a robot, up to about how much would you pay?

Up to 10,000 yen	11.9%
10,000 to 100,000 yen	37.8%
100,000 to 200,000 yen	13.4%
200,000 to 300,000 yen	7.0%
300,000 to 500,000 yen	5.2%
500,000 to 1,000,000 yen	5.0%
1,000,000 to 10,000,000 yen	1.1%
Over 10,000,000 yen	0.2%
I don’t think I want to buy	18.0%
No answer	0.5%

Q4: Are you uneasy about the spread of home robots?

I feel completely uneasy about it	6.7%
I’m a little uneasy about it	27.4%
I can’t say whether I am uneasy or not	34.1%
I don’t really feel uneasy	22.4%
I don’t feel uneasy at all	8.4%
No answer	1.0%

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