Pepper is everywhere in Japan, and nobody cares. Should we feel bad for robots?

Whether it’s robots or smartphones, AI or premium audio products, Japan has always been at the forefront of any conversation about technology. We recently spent several weeks in Tokyo discovering not only what some of the biggest names in new tech are creating but also taking advantage of the exciting location to test out the best smartphone cameras and discover the charm of its popular tech-tourism destinations. Make sure to check out other entries in our series “Modern Japan.”

Pepper the robot has consistently hit headlines since its introduction several years ago. The humanoid robot is a surprisingly regular sight in Japan, despite being a rarity in the U.S. and Europe. Created by mobile technology mega-corp SoftBank, we were pleased to see Pepper on duty not only in SoftBank’s many stores but helping out the public in other places too.

Watching Pepper out in public gave us a glimpse of a joyous robot-filled future.

Sharing space with an actual, functioning robot on an almost daily basis was like our wildest sci-fi dreams come true. Pepper is the real deal. It carries out increasingly complex tasks, can verbally interact with you, and can even read your facial expressions to judge how you’re feeling. It has been employed in various jobs over the years, from being a priest to selling phones.

Watching Pepper out in public gave us a glimpse of a joyous robot-filled future, but also grimly reminded us about the danger of instilling automation with personality — real or imagined. It gives them the power to play with our emotions, as it’s worryingly easy to forget they’re not human. Should this put us off chatting, and potentially caring about, robots?