Swedish retailer Ikea is becoming a landlord in Japan with a tiny apartment it will rent out in Tokyo.
The 10-square-meter (107-square-foot) apartment is located in the Shinjuku district and will cost just 99 yen ($0.86) per month to rent, according to details released by Ikea this week.
Only one unit is available, and it is fully furnished with Ikea furniture and accessories. The company is accepting applications from potential tenants, who must be over 20 years old, until December 3.
A new greeter at the entrance of the Mitsukoshi department store in central Tokyo has caused a stir. The worker, dressed in a kimono and cheerfully welcoming shoppers in honorific Japanese, is a robot made by Toshiba and shows how lifelike these machines can be.
This latest example of Japan’s skill comes just as Prime Minister Shinzo Abe is calling for a “robot revolution.” Advances in robotic computing power, the ability to recognize voices and images, and machine learning could help the country overcome the handicap of a fast-aging populace and a declining workforce.
At the opening of Japan’s Robot Revolution Initiative Council on May 15, Abe urged companies to “spread the use of robotics from large-scale factories to every corner of our economy and society.” Backed by 200 companies and universities, the five-year, government-led push aims to deepen the use of intelligent machines in manufacturing, supply chains, construction, and health care, while expanding robotics sales from 600 billion yen ($4.9 billion) annually to 2.4 trillion yen by 2020.
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