Short answers, pulled from the story.
Takeda-za developed a mechanical-puppet theater that flourished in Osaka's Dōtonbori district between 1603 and 1867. This group produced complex mechanical toys capable of serving tea or firing arrows drawn from a quiver.
Professor Ichiro Kato completed WABOT-1 in 1972 after initiating the WABOT project at Waseda University in 1967. The machine walked on two legs, saw with two camera eyes, and measured distances using external receptors while communicating through an artificial mouth.
Approximately 500,000 of the 700,000 industrial robots used worldwide operated within Japan during 1995. Japan currently employs over a quarter of a million industrial robot workers today.
Robotics revenue is expected to reach $70 billion by 2025 according to current projections. Between 1,235,000 and 1,500,000 industrial robots were in use globally by 2012.
These machines address Japan's declining birth rate and shrinking workforce issues. Fumio Miyazaki stated that Japanese scientists could provide thousands of humanoids working alongside humans by the end of the 2020s.