The Asian reporter., July 06, 2015, Page Page 16, Image 16

ASIA / PACIFIC
Page 16 n THE ASIAN REPORTER
July 6, 2015
Cat stationmaster Tama mourned
in Japan, elevated as goddess
By Mari Yamaguchi
The Associated Press
OKYO — Tama the stationmaster, Japan’s feline
star of a struggling local railway, was mourned by
company officials and fans and elevated into a
goddess at a recent funeral.
The calico cat was appointed stationmaster at the Kishi
station in western Japan in 2007. Donning her custom-
made stationmaster’s cap, Tama quietly sat at the ticket
gate welcoming and seeing off passengers. The cat quickly
attracted tourists and became world famous, contributing
to the railway company and local economy.
Tama, who had turned 16 in April, died of heart failure
on June 22. During the Shinto-style funeral at the station
where she served, Tama became a goddess. The Shinto
religion, indigenous to Japan and practiced by many
Japanese, has a variety of gods, including animals.
In one of several portraits decorating the altar, Tama
posed in a stationmaster’s hat and a dark blue cape. Saké,
as well as watermelon, apples, cabbage, and other fruits
and vegetables were presented to the cat. A stand outside
the station was heaped with bouquets, canned tuna, and
other gifts left by thousands of Tama fans who came to
pray from around the country.
Wakayama Electric Railway president Mitsunobu
Kojima thanked the cat for her achievement, and said
Tama will be enshrined at a nearby cat shrine in August.
Before Tama’s arrival, the local Kishigawa Line was
near-bankrupt; and the station was unmanned as it had
lost its last staff.
Kojima said appointing Tama as stationmaster was
initially an excuse to keep the cat at the station.
“But she was really doing her job,” he said. The rest was
a miracle, and his company’s success story also gave hope
for dozens of other struggling tiny local train lines, he
said.
“Tama-chan really emerged like a savior, a goddess. It
was truly my honor to have been able to work with her,”
Kojima said in his speech.
During her tenure, Tama contributed an estimated 1.1
billion yen ($8.9 million) to the local economy, Kojima
T
PROGRAMMING PEPPER. SoftBank Corp’s robot Pepper per-
forms during a press conference in Maihama, near Tokyo. Pepper has
a hairless head, no legs, and moves on wheels. (AP Photo/Shizuo
Kambayashi)
Softbank’s childlike robot
with ‘heart’ goes on sale
By Yuri Kageyama
AP Business Writer
RAYASU, Japan — Technology company Soft-
bank’s Pepper robot has gone on sale in Japan,
equipped with a “heart” designed to not only
recognize human emotions but react with simulations of
anger, joy, and irritation.
The robot, which has no legs and moves on wheels, was
shown to reporters and guests at a Tokyo area theater. It
has a hairless head and moving arms and went through a
year of software development after first being announced.
Pepper glided proudly on to the stage, conversed with
celebrity guests such as Alibaba founder Jack Ma, did a
dance, sang a birthday song, and demonstrated how it
could record family life in photos and serve as a
companion. It appeared to respond with joy when it was
praised or stroked.
Softbank Corp. CEO Masayoshi Son said the company
was preparing for a global sales launch with partners
Alibaba Group of China and FoxConn of Taiwan, which
will each take a 20 percent stake in Softbank’s robotics
unit and help with software and manufacturing.
Details of when and where it will go on sale outside
Japan are still undecided, but Son said the first overseas
sales will likely happen next year, with experimental
sales likely happening later this year. It sells for 198,000
yen ($1,600) in Japan.
According to Son, the robot will develop its own
personality of sorts, depending on what family owns it and
how people interact with it. Pepper can remember faces
and is programmed to be happy when it is given attention,
but becomes irritated and depressed when it is not.
Son gushed with emotion himself when explaining to
reporters and guests what was in store for Pepper,
stressing the company’s commitment to robots, especially
smart robots that can provide emotional interaction in
everyday life.
He said the inspiration for Pepper came from his child-
hood memories of Astro Boy, an animated Japanese
character which did not have a heart and could not
understand why people cried. He made a point of
programming Pepper to look like it weeps: lights well up
in its round eyes.
Although he acknowledged some may not agree with
the idea of making robots that appeared to have human
traits, he said such technology could be transformative.
The world already has robots that help in manu-
facturing, and mankind has already made the car and the
plane, but what it needs is love, he said with a straight
face.
“Our vision is to offer a robot with love,” he said.
U
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said.
Kojima said that when he visited Tama at an animal
hospital the day before she died, the cat woke up and
reached out to him with her paws, as if asking for a hug,
and looked straight into his eyes. He said he told Tama to
get well so they could celebrate the cat’s upcoming 10th
anniversary as a stationmaster, and said the cat
responded with a “meow.”
Tama is a popular name for cats in Japan, where they
are considered spiritual animals. The word also translates
as treasure, ball, or spirit.
The cat had climbed the corporate ladder from
stationmaster to “ultra-stationmaster” and vice president
of the company before receiving the additional title of
“honorable eternal stationmaster.”
Tama will be succeeded by another calico cat, Nitama,
now an apprentice stationmaster.
It w asn’t o ur t ree.
But it w as in o ur kit chen.
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FAMOUS FELINE. Tama the stationmaster, Japan’s feline star of a
struggling local railway, receives a birthday cake on her 16th birthday in
Kinokawa, Wakayama prefecture, western Japan, in this April 29, 2015 file
photo. Tama was mourned by company officials and fans and elevated
into a goddess at a funeral last month. Tama died of heart failure on
June 22, 2015. (Kyodo News via AP, File)
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