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1st Edition

The Future of Humans and Emotional Machines Narratives from Japanese Culture in the 21st Century

Edited By Elena Giannoulis Copyright 2026

232 Pages 9 B/W Illustrations

by Routledge

Description

This book explores human‑machine interaction in Japan, providing a new focus on how and in what form people build affective bonds to new technologies. To gain insights into the feelings, identities, fears, and desires of people in our contemporary society, this book brings together perspectives from Japanese studies, cultural and literary studies, anthropology, robotics, philosophy, and game... Read more

Table of Contents

1 Introduction: Astro Boy’s grandchildren—of longing, disappointment, and new heroes in Japan

Elena Giannoulis

PART I The family album of emotional machines: Pepper and his successors

2 Representations of emotional capacity in human‑robot interaction: from Astro Boy to Pepper

Keiko Nishimura

3 Character, desire, infrastructure: manga/anime fandom preceding and predicting technological experimentation in Japan

Patrick W. Galbraith

4 Characteristics of artificial intelligence in Japan

Hirotaka Ōsawa

PART II Between promises and realities: a critique of popular media and public narrative

5 Hearts meet wires: navigating the ethical and social implications of care robotics

Giulia De Togni

6 On posthuman imaginaries and Japanese robot culture: a techno‑oriental strand of cruel optimism

Carman Ng

7 Human‑machine relations from abacus to AI in the Sanrio anime Aggressive Retsuko (Aggretsuko)

Debra J. Occhi and Anderson Pierre Passos

8 An anthropological view of social robots: ontological indefiniteness and the subjective experience of care technologies in Japan

Anne Aronsson

PART III Inheriting human problems: negotiating dreams, fears, and gender

9 Kawaii aesthetics in human‑machine romance: reimagining gender, cuteness, and digital intimacy in A.I. Love You (2016)

Pei‑Sze Chow, Jacopo Barbero, Hiromi Tanaka and Michelle H. S. Ho

10 Reframing socio‑cultural malaise in the technocene: a psychosocial reading of Abe Kōbō’s Inter Ice Age 4 and Kazuo Ishiguro’s Klara and the Sun

Veronica De Pieri

PART IV Blurring boundaries: where does the human end, where does the machine begin?

11 Beyond an ontological divide: possibilities of emotional connections between humans and androids in Shūkō Murase’s Ergo Proxy

Malte Frey

12 The obsolescence of robot commodity and human‑machine relationship: the case of two anime

Kris C. T. Li

13 OriHime robot avatars, affect, and performance

Yūji Sone

Digression I: Artistic visions on human‑machine attachments

14 My robot, blurting out

Yōko Tawada

Translated by Jeffrey Angles

15 Humans and AI humans—on ambiguity and change

Kei’ichirō Hirano

Digression II: The impact of the popular imaginary on robotics engineering in Japan

16 We can expect the relationship between humans and robots to be of a different kind from that between humans

An interview with Tatsuya Nomura

17 Behavior that complements humans is an essential characteristic of social agents

An interview with Hirotaka Ōsawa

18 By creating communication robots, I would like to ensure that there are no people who feel socially isolated

An interview with Hidenobu Sumioka

Editor(s)

Biography

Elena Giannoulis is Professor of Japanese Literature in the Department of History and Cultural Studies at the Freie Universität Berlin, Germany.

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