“I felt my circle became very small,” said 23-year-old Hamaura, a recent graduate who has worked almost entirely remotely since April 2020. With socialising limited, life in her first job at a Tokyo trading company was nothing like she had imagined. So she adopted Charlie, a mug-sized robot with a round head, red nose and flashing bow-tie, who converses with its owner in song. “Many Japanese people accept the idea that every object has a soul,” said Shunsuke Aoki, CEO of robot firm Yukai Engineering. During Japan’s virus state of emergency, the capital became “stark and empty”, she said.

Source: The Star February 26, 2021 05:30 UTC