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A Japanese hotel has almost entirely replaced humans with robots as a cost-cutting scheme

Chris WellerJul 17, 2015, 20:17 IST

Shizuo Kambayashi/AP Images

In the southwestern city of Sasebo, Japan, a hotel run almost entirely by robots, from the animatronic humanoid greeting Japanese-speaking guests and the English-speaking dinosaur, to the robotic bell hop and the doll-like robot concierge in people's rooms, is now open to the public.

Hideo Sawada runs the aptly named Weird Hotel as part of an amusement park, but he denies the hotel is a hokey lure for tourists. Japan just loves robots.

"I wanted to highlight innovation," Sawada told reporters recently. "I also wanted to do something about hotel prices going up."

Plus, it's not a bad idea to get started on the robot revolution when Japan's human population is declining so rapidly.

For just 9,000 yen ($80), the general public can take a breezy stroll through the uncanny valley.