I hate those guys on the streets of any main city in the paper thin black suits and the dragonball Z hairstyles that harrass girls walking down the street to come to their snack bar or to work at their snack bar or to 'go for tea' or whatever, and if the trend is anything to go by these guys could be replaced by robots in the near future! Now this is not exactly true, its a wild guess by myself, but thats the way things are going in Osaka.

Due to new laws introduced in 2005, informing the public about local adult information centers via street solicitors is now against the law. This didnt stop them however, as they were replaced with (mostly old, homeless looking) guys holding signs pointing the direction of these centers, with "ore ni kike" written on them allowing interested clients to ask the guy for more information, which is not considered illegal. Well not until the end of last month.

So have the police and government finally ridden the streets of these nuisences? Of course not. They have come up with an ingenious, very Japanese solution to the problem. Dress a robot in a sailor suit school uniform and give the sign to him! This ridiculously expensive 'touting tool', which underwent a $4000 upgrade since its previous road traffic directing job, will occassionally raise and lower the "Ask me!" banner and attract customers that way.

“It’s a robot, so no problem” says a spokesperson for the information center. Yer and thats gonna last long... I'm looking forward to robot bankrobbers where the owners will be able to give the same argument destroying excuse "but... its a robot! so no probem!"