Short answers, pulled from the story.
WABOT-1, completed in 1972 by professor Ichiro Kato's team at Waseda University, was the world's first full-scale humanoid intelligent robot. It walked on two legs, used two camera eyes for vision, gripped objects with tactile sensors in its hands, and could communicate in Japanese through an artificial mouth.
Japan employs over a quarter of a million industrial robots. In 1995, Japan alone accounted for 500,000 of the approximately 700,000 industrial robots in use worldwide, and by 2012 global usage had grown to between 1,235,000 and 1,500,000.
Japanese robotics has roots in the Edo period (1603-1867), when craftsmen built karakuri ningyo, or mechanical dolls. The craftsman Hisashige Tanaka, known as "Japan's Edison," created mechanical toys capable of serving tea, firing arrows, and painting kanji characters. The landmark text Karakuri Zui was published in 1796.
Kirobo is Japan's first robot astronaut. It was used on the International Space Station beginning on the 10th of August 2013.
CB2, or child robot with biomimetic body, is a Japanese robot designed to learn from experience rather than execute fixed programs. It has 197 film-like pressure sensors under its rubber skin and uses 51 air-pressure-driven structures described as muscles to move. CB2 taught itself to walk with human assistance and was built by a team called Asada that included engineers, brain specialists, and psychologists.
Japan invests in robotics to reduce high labor costs, support industrial mechanization, and address a declining birth rate and shrinking workforce. Robots are also seen as a partial answer to future strain on pension and healthcare programs. Japan aims for robotics in the 21st century to play the economic role that automobiles played in the 20th.