In Japan, plans are afoot to roll out a workforce of robots to carry out menial tasks and transportation duties within the next decade or so. A lot of big technology names have signed up to the ‘CIRT’ group, along with Tokyo University, and the government is pitching in for half of the research bill, in the hope of ameliorating the problems of an increasingly aging population. But if there aren’t enough people to work at looking after the elderly, who’s going to make these robots? There could be some big outsourcing involved here.