Gundam UC novelist to speak at niconico-streamed event;
mecha once considered for party's manifesto
The Liberal Democratic Party, a center-right faction in
Japanese politics, will hold a live, 12-hour marathon stream on the niconico
service on Thursday, and one of the marathon's panels will discuss "the
Gundam Development Project, as seriously considered by the Liberal Democratic
Party."
Masaaki Taira and Hideki Niwa, two members of Japan's
House of Representatives, will speak during the 8:00 p.m. panel with their
guest, novelist Harutoshi Fukui. Fukui happens to be the writer of the Mobile
Suit Gundam UC novels (pictured below right).
Taira reported last year that his party would consider
adding the efforts to realize "piloted, two-legged walking humanoid
robots" into the party's platform manifesto. Taira also posted an extended
discussion about the feasibility of piloted walking robots on Twitter, using
the anime and manga titles Gundam, Appleseed, and Patlabor (pictured left) as
examples. Taira broached the topic after meeting with Katsuya Kanaoka, a
professor of robotics from Kyoto University.
In 2008, SciencePortal.jp, a website run by the Japan
Science and Technology Agency (JST), released a report estimating how much it
would cost to build a 18-meter-tall (59-feet-tall), functioning
"Morph-X" combat robot similar to those used in Gundam. The Japanese
government funds about 90% of JST's budget, with the remaining coming from the
agency's own operational income.
