With over 40,000 citizens aged over 100 years old, it’s no wonder that Japan is pumping out elderly care robot bear nurses, exoskeleton walking aids, and now Taizo, the bizarre clown-faced, spaceman-lookin’ physical movement robot.

Taizo is designed by Japan’s National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology (AIST), and is supposed to look silly. The idea is to put people at ease while using his 26 joints to demonstrate around 30 different moves for them to follow.

With the elderly in mind, the 27.5-inch tall bot does many of the exercises from his own special chair, and will last about two hours per charge.

But Taizo will be roughly $US8000 when he arrives next year. I guess most salarymen/women will have to rent one…or just buy their folks a Wii. [General Robotix via Impress via Pink Tentacle]