Becoming Robots

More weird, cool, slightly creepy, and ultimately very sad news from Japan. A crew of engineers at Tokyo Agriculture and Technical University have been developing a power-assist suit which can amplify the wearer's strength by as much as 62 percent. Who are they building it for? Crime-fighting heroes? Super-soldiers? Plucky alien-fighting teenagers?

Farmers. Japanese farmers, whose average age is now getting so high most of them are having trouble doing basic farm chores. So instead of the country allowing more immigration, or finding a way to encourage larger families, the farmers can simply wear robot suits.

The "greying" of the country is a problem affecting many sectors of Japanese society, and apparently there's no social problem in the Empire of Japan that can't be cured by throwing robots at it.  

Comments

[Steve Nicewarner]

That is a uniquely Japanese way to solve the problem

[Dave*]

Started a horror/SF story about Japanese demographics last week. But it'll have to wait until I finish the novel to get completed.

-D*

[Rebecca]

The greying of the farming population is a problem here, too, as I understand it.