Robot baths: One alternative to immigration

The New York Times has an interesting piece on robots and care of the elderly in Japan. One of the key themes seems to be that xenophobia is a big factor in the incipient robot boom; people would rather have, for example, automated baths than nurses from the Phillipines or Thailand.

Leaders of the Philippines and Thailand, two countries that are negotiating free trade pacts with Japan, suggest [...] granting work visas to tens of thousands of foreign nurses. But that is unlikely in a nation that last year granted asylum to only 10 refugees and in the last decade has issued about 50,000 work visas a year -- a fraction of the 640,000 immigrants a year that demographers say are necessary to prevent Japan's population from shrinking.

So even though the human washing machine retails for almost $50,000, enough to pay a year's wages for two Filipino nurses, robotic home care may lie in the future for Japan's aging millions.

[Read: New York Times article (subscription required)]