Need For More Coordination?

The Japan Science and Technology Agency formed a committee two years ago to coordinate the many robotics related R&D projects underway at various government arms. The goal - quickly develop useful robots with a smaller budget. This was a unique move since Japanese ministries used to be notorious for fighting over budgets and at the end using them to accomplish the same kinds of things.

Well, according to a Japanese blog, the committee recently had a gathering to announce its progress, but interestingly enough, the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare was missing. This seems to be due to the fact that the health ministry currently has no robot-related budget. But it is ironic because many of the robots under development are meant to be used in hospitals and for elderly care, which are under the health ministry's jurisdiction.