In Japan, we don't see robots as a threat: just a form of presence in the world
Takeshi Yoro, an 88-year-old Japanese anatomist and author, discusses his theory of human intransigence as a neurological condition rather than a moral failing. He argues that people fail to understand each other due to an 'invisible wall' of bias and self-assurance, a concept he explored in his best-selling book Baka no Kabe. Yoro also reflects on technology, AI, and Japan's cultural relationship with peace and robotics.
- ▪Takeshi Yoro spent 30 years performing autopsies before turning to writing and public science education.
- ▪His book Baka no Kabe sold four million copies and introduced the idea of an 'invisible wall' preventing human understanding.
- ▪An AI version of Yoro was created for the Osaka World Expo using data from his 200+ books.
- ▪Yoro believes Japan's pacifism stems from its geography and history, not just post-WWII reforms.
- ▪He argues that smartphones are not the problem, but rather the broader issue of societal systematization.
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| Original publisher | EL PAÍS English |
| Canonical URL | https://english.elpais.com/science-tech/2026-05-16/takeshi-yoro-anatomist-in-japan-we-dont-see-a-robot-as-a-threat-its-simply-another-form-of-presence-in-the-world.html |
| Publication time | Sun, 17 May 2026 04:08:32 +0000 |
| Retrieval time | 2026-05-17T04:33:58.434Z |
| Last seen | 2026-05-17T04:33:58.434Z |
| Headline source | Publisher (no WeSearch rewrite) |
| Excerpt source | publisher body |
| Excerpt method | First ~120 words (~800 chars) of extracted publisher body, fair-use limited. |
| Summary | WeSearch · cerebras-chat (WeSearch summarizer) |
| Summary source text | contentText |
| Citation coverage | Summary is a WeSearch-generated derivative; primary citation is the original publisher URL. |
| Cluster | CM8q4AHAYyrS |
| Cluster logic | Grouped by semantic title/content similarity across sources within a rolling window. Same-publisher template collisions are excluded from coverage comparison. |
| Ranking reason | Story pages are not engagement-ranked. Hub feeds use recency, with optional source-diversified chronological ordering (cap consecutive stories per source). No personalized ranking. |
| Publisher visit | Yes — open original |
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| Indexing | May the item be indexed (stored, ranked, made findable)? | Allowed |
| Snippet | May a short excerpt of the publisher's text be shown? | Allowed |
| AI summary | May WeSearch generate its own short summary of the article? | Limited |
| Retrieval / RAG | May the content be exposed for third-party retrieval-augmented generation? | Not asserted |
| Model training | May the content be used to train AI models? | Not asserted |
| Commercial reuse | May the content be reused commercially? | Not permitted |
Basis: Derived from the published RSS/Atom feed. Contact: [email protected]. Reviewed: 2026-07-24.
Opening excerpt (first ~120 words) tap to expand
INTERVIEWTakeshi Yoro, anatomist: ‘In Japan, we don’t see a robot as a threat: it’s simply another form of presence in the world’The 88-year-old Japanese physician swapped autopsies for popular science writing. In his best-seller, he argues that we have vast amounts of information but fail to understand one another because of an ‘invisible wall’ made up of prejudice, bias, self-assurance, and the failure to listenTakeshi Yoro at the Tokyo Museum of Photography, on April 30.IRWIN WONGGonzalo RobledoMay 16, 2026 - 06:00CESTShare on WhatsappShare on FacebookShare on TwitterDesplegar Redes SocialesPrefer EL PAÍS on GoogleCompartir:WhatsappFacebookTwitterBlueskyLinkedinCopy linkAnatomist Takeshi Yoro is 88 years old and spent 30 of those years performing autopsies at the University of Tokyo.
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Excerpt limited to ~120 words for fair-use compliance. The full article is at EL PAÍS English.
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