{"id":247193,"date":"2026-05-16T18:00:00","date_gmt":"2026-05-16T22:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/2026\/05\/16\/hopes-still-high-after-android-made-in-japan-freezes-in-debut\/"},"modified":"2026-05-17T05:55:09","modified_gmt":"2026-05-17T09:55:09","slug":"hopes-still-high-after-android-made-in-japan-freezes-in-debut","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/2026\/05\/16\/hopes-still-high-after-android-made-in-japan-freezes-in-debut\/","title":{"rendered":"Hopes still high after android made in Japan freezes in debut"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.asahi.com\/ajw\/articles\/16535879\">Hopes still high after android made in Japan freezes in debut<\/a><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.asahi.com\/ajw\/articles\/16535879\">https:\/\/www.asahi.com\/ajw\/articles\/16535879<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Publish Date: <a href=\"publish_date]\">2026-05-16 18:00:00<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Source Domain: <a href=\"www.asahi.com\">www.asahi.com<\/a><\/p>\n<p>KYOTO\u2014A made-in-Japan humanoid that\u2019s part of a project to help the country make up for lost ground in android development got off to a shaky start.<\/p>\n<p>A prototype of the robot, developed by Japanese companies and universities as members of the Kyoto Humanoid Association (KyoHA), a general incorporated association, was unveiled in Kyoto on April 28.<\/p>\n<p>Designed for use in rescue efforts during natural disasters and other emergencies, the prototype is 140 centimeters tall and weighs 49 kilograms.<\/p>\n<p>It is named Seimei, a play on the Japanese word meaning \u201clife.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>But on the day of its public presentation, Seimei struggled to show signs of life. It was unable to walk or move its arms.<\/p>\n<p>Apparently, a leg component had been severely damaged during a test just before the demonstration.<\/p>\n<p>KyoHA intends to identify challenges involving parts and control systems through prototypes and complete a mass-produced model by the end of March 2029.<\/p>\n<p>The association plans to release another prototype by year-end that can generate far greater force at construction sites and in nursing care.<\/p>\n<p>Although the world\u2019s first full-scale humanoid was born in Japan, the nation trails other countries, such as the United States and China, in the robotics field.<\/p>\n<p>KyoHA aims to reverse the trend by pitching a domestically produced humanoid built with components from Japanese manufacturers.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe must, first and foremost, acknowledge that humanoid robots from the United States and China are extremely advanced,\u201d said Kenji Hashimoto, a robotics professor at Waseda University and a director at KyoHA. \u201cDespite this, we are determined to go all out toward making the most of Japanese-made parts in our robots and thereby putting in place a domestic supply chain.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Seimei appeared in traditional Japanese attire in the image of Abe no Seimei (921-1005), a yin-yang practitioner from the Heian Period (794-1185).<\/p>\n<p>All components of the robot\u2019s body, such&#8230;<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.asahi.com\/ajw\/articles\/16535879\">Source<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Hopes still high after android made in Japan freezes in debut https:\/\/www.asahi.com\/ajw\/articles\/16535879 Publish Date: 2026-05-16&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":247196,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/p.potaufeu.asahi.com\/cad3-p\/picture\/30818319\/ed6c2d9c2fc50977cd94e78c889fd373.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[46],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-247193","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-android"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/247193"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=247193"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/247193\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":247197,"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/247193\/revisions\/247197"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/247196"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=247193"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=247193"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=247193"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}