Robots are generally well accepted as caregiver assistants in Japan—even Inagaki loses some of her skepticism at some point and repeats a sentence that’s often heard: “Ultimately, people will get used to it and then it will probably be completely normal.” Most Japanese get excited about new technologies—and for decades now, the cute little machine people from the comics have gotten everyone used to the idea of coexisting with androids. Inagaki, on the other hand, would prefer to see more immigration in response to the rapidly aging society. As a restaurateur, she believes that ordering on a screen in a restaurant cheapens the experience. Besides, Inagaki says that she finds immigrant workers—from the Philippines, for example—to be friendly, hardworking, and helpful. “We should let a lot more of those people in; that would be smarter than simply trusting technology alone,” she says. Inagaki acknowledges that this would presumably change Japanese culture, with its countless little rules, its proper bowing, and its frequent apologies. “But at some point we need to make compromises if we keep on having fewer and fewer children,” she explains.