In a year of mounting tension and occasional awkwardness between China and Japan, a robot modeled on nationalistic Japanese prime minister Shinzo Abe has caused a stir at the 2015 China International Robot Show, held in Shanghai last week.
The Abe robot can’t serve food, manufacture cars or kill it playing Flappy Bird, but it does do something Chinese people have wanted for a long time – it offers a sincere apology for Japan’s war crimes – something the real Abe has not been so forthcoming with.
Dubbed ‘Apologizing Abe,’ the robot prime minister apparently only has one function – bowing over and over again. Despite his one-note smile, the mechanical Abe somehow still manages to look more at ease around Chinese people than his human counterpart.
Visitors to the exhibition seemed to appreciate Abe's gesture, snapping selfies with the Abe-bot and stroking its face.
Careful not to court controversy, a representative for the robot’s manufacturer admitted it was all done for publicity:
"It's just a way to attract attention from visitors and with absolutely no political implication," Wang Guofeng, a sales agent of the reported manufacturer, Shanghai Jinghong Robot Co Ltd, told the Global Times.
Wang said the company did not manufacture the robot, yet a card with the company's name was found on the robot and a similar product was featured on the company's website, priced at 39,000 yuan ($6,282).
Chinese media also found some choice quotes from Japanese online comments:
“Japan should mass produce 'Apologizing Abe' robots, sales in China would be great.”
“Good sense of humor, probably the Liberal Democratic Party needs one."
China has been gearing up to mark the 70th anniversary of victory over Japan in the Second World War with an ‘Anti-Fascist’ military parade and a national holiday in September.
Watch Chinese visitors interact with Apologizing Abe below:
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