Panel trumpets housekeeper bots by 2025

Japan's Innovation 25 Strategy Council, a government panel, sees average Japanese families owning housecleaning robots that talk by 2025, according to a new interim report.

Other wonders that await us: electric vehicles will cruise the streets, automatically dodging obstacles and cleaning the air via artificial photosynthesis, while linear-motor cars will cut travel times between Tokyo and Osaka to 50 minutes, compared to the current 2.5 hours for the bullet train. Oh, and there will be robots on the moon too.

The report also features the hypothetical Inobe family of 2025. They are five people plus a robot called Inobee that is 5 years old. The droid does housework during the day, and later gives a verbal report about his activities to the household's telecommuting mom Yumiko. The Inobes' health, meanwhile, is monitored by home computers.

Sounds pretty fanciful. The Nikkei newspaper has criticized the council, created by Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, for being too vague and offering only rehashed platitudes about the need for greater innovation in Japan as its population ages. The government's powerful Council on Economic and Fiscal Policy, though, is to incorporate the report's visions in its 2007 policy goals.

It's nice to know that Tokyo's bureaucrats are rooting for Inobee. No doubt once he masters the art of making his environment look clean, he'll be ready for public service.