Over the years, Japan has been known as one of the healthiest countries in the world, with most of the population consisting of the elderly (65 years+) and those of middle age (25 – 54 years), as of last year according to Index Mundi. Unfortunately, the birth rates have been horribly declining as a result of change in the social norm of the Land of the Rising Sun. Men tend to be more docile and disconnected, while women are becoming more persnickety with their choice of a spouse. Not only that, but those with paying business jobs tend to spend the majority of their day working nonstop, and with their free hours they spend very little time with their families, and that’s if they have one to go to. Those who live alone may end up self-medicating through drinking at late-night bars.

Thankfully(?) the company vinclu inc. unveiled their newest creation: Gatebox, Virtual Home Robot. Starting from December of last year, Gatebox has been available for preorder for Japan and the United States for 298K Japanese Yen (in USD that’s around 2600 dollars).

 

This Waifu Bot is meant to simulate the interactivity between an average salaryman and his girlfriend/wife. So far, only one character has been unveiled as a base for the projetion created as a hologram going by the name Azuma Hikari. This waifu (T.N. note: “waifu” is a term meant to address an imaiginary female spouse) acts like you’re own personal AI assistant/lover. Think of her as like Jarvis (now Vision) from the more recent MARVEL movies, except instead being possessed by Tony Stark, she belongs directly to you the consumer. She also has the ability to control the vicinity around her such as lighting in your house and other electrical appliances, as shown by the product’s trailer. As an added topping, she can also send you text messages which you can actually reply to using a set amount of reply choices.

Although Hikari is the only character accessible so far, it has been advertised that one could live their “favorite character”. This means that the husando (T.N. note: “Husbando” is the male equivalent of “waifu”) has the ability to customize their Gatebox girl, according to the Gatebox site through an HDMI chord. However, this could also mean that choices will come up in the future to actually project holograms of characters from popular media franchises. While I don’t have the kind of money to buy that sort of item (at least not yet), were I given the choice, I’d customize my waifu to match that of Tsumugi Kotobuki from the anime K-On!.

While I do believe this innovation could be a nice pasttime or house assistant for the average consumer, though it could be a detriment to the young Japanese demographic, as young men (or women) could conclude that they’d find much more solace through Hikari than a real girl. However, this could also go in the opposite direction and build confidence in order to connect real people, perhaps as a conversation starter. There’s no true way to tell what kind of social effect this will have on Japan, but I have faith that this will at the very least help economically. With a product as expensive as 298,000 Yen, all one can do is pick a god and pray.