When it comes to visions of a technology-assisted life in the future, there is hardly a publication that does not refer to Japan as an allegedly ‘robot-loving country’ (p. 9). But what if we look behind the curtain of ‘social’ robot presentations at exhibition sites, museums and laboratories in Japan? Is there such a thing as a ‘Japanese robot affinity’ or are we only spectators of multimedia and state-supported robot performances with Prime Minister Abe as director?

It is this ‘dynamic relation of technology, politics, and culture, including popular culture expression’ (p. 221), that motivated Yuji Sone to author the comprehensive study on ‘Japanese robot culture’ from a performance researcher's point of view. While the critical assessment of the ‘Robotopia Nipponica’ has led to academic monographs from science and technology studies (STS)/history-of-technology approaches already, Sone adds to the field by applying the methodological framework of performance studies, focusing on mises en scène: ‘the social meaning of the robot for the viewing public is, in essence, activated through carefully structured, theatrical mises en scène (stagings) that always surround the appearance of robots in Japanese public (and private) life’ (p. 3).

Following an introductory chapter on a ‘History of the Japanese Performing Robot’ and an outline of ‘Theatre and Performance Concepts through Japanese Culture’, Sone presents eight more chapters with examples of robots in ‘staged situations’: the field of humanoid robotics research and its relation to popular culture techno-imaginations; a history of techno-nationalistic presentations of robots during international events like Expos; robot(ic) theatre experiments and performances in Japan; the fighting-robot genre in popular entertainment and its connection to fan and tourist cultures; robots or rather virtual machines from a gender-studies approach, with the example of the ‘Cool Japan’ subculture virtual idol Hatsune Miku; the manifold robot competitions of practitioners and hobbyists within Japan; and, finally, care robots for the elderly. These are followed by a lucid Epilogue with critical reflections on robots as soft-power performers for the upcoming 2020 Olympic Games in Japan. Each of the chapters shines a light on the stakeholders behind the ‘technology push’ of robots in everyday life in Japan and explains how ‘particular and culturally contextualised effects and affects’ (p. 221) of robot technology are facilitated.

By understanding these situations as performative mises en scène the book extends performance theory to robot technology appearances in daily life as a popular form of theatre in contrast to ‘high art’. In addition, it introduces the reader to a solid base of literature written in Japanese on the topic. However, the book lacks a connection of Sone's findings to other research where these arguments have already been raised, but from an STS/history-of-technology approach (e.g. Kenji Itô’s 2010 article ‘Robots, A-Bombs, and War: Cultural Meanings of Science and Technology in Japan around World War II’; Shigeru Nakayama's 2009 publication titled The Orientation of Science and Technology: A Japanese View; this author's 2013 work titled Robotopia Nipponica: Recherchen zur Akzeptanz von Robotern in Japan (Robotopia Nipponica – Research on the Acceptance of Robots in Japan); and the 2009 article ‘The Japanese Way of Robotics: Interacting “Naturally” with Robots as a National Character?’).

In addition, although the author frequently and rightly criticizes the ‘generalities of the presumed Japanese affinity for robots’ (p. 221), he supports precisely that impression by not mentioning critical voices of the ‘robot performances’ in Japan. These point to the tendency for spectacularization of robots, and the relative lack of accessibility for private use. Furthermore, will the ‘encounter between the audience (or users) and robots in sensually and narratively heightened mises en scène’ (p. 222) lead to these devices being included in homes or care facilities, given the lack of affordability and the absence of critical human qualities?

Nevertheless, Sone's volume is a thought-provoking read for everyone interested in the performative agency of robots, as well as the deconstruction of ‘techno-deterministic’ (p. 218) and ‘cultural-essentialist’ (p. 221) pictures of a ‘Robot Kingdom Japan’ (p. 1).