Humanoid robots, some of which can even walk on two legs, dominate the world"s largest robot exhibition, held this weekend in Yokohama, southwest of Tokyo.
The show brings together more than 90 different types of robot from 38 companies, colleges and other organisations, up from last year"s 72 bots.
As usual, Honda"s Asimo stole the limelight in a way that would have the other automatons hopping mad.
Honda"s droid is something of a TV star thanks to his car endorsements and has received more press coverage than any other robot, bar Sony"s Aibo.
While Honda has no plans to place the 120-cm tin man on sale, Asimo can now recognise individual faces and can understand gestures as well as spoken commands.
Meet him once and he never forgets, responding by approaching and calling your name on subsequent meetings.