Okay, today will not be heroic rescue & recovery robots, nor life-changing assistive robots for the disabled and elderly. No, today we're talking Japan's industrial robots, and through profound statistics, talk of money, and wildly general projections for the future, we're going to spice up this dry robot salad.

Now, industrial robots are basically super-strong, super-precise, fantastically dexterous multi-jointed arms that do pretty much exactly what they look like they should: welding, machining, painting, assembly, etc. These robots are intended to allow humans to avoid the so-called Three Ds: work that is Dirty, Dangerous, and/or Demeaning. They do this well, and while being technically impressive and integral to the global economy for well over three decades, in truth industrial robots are not really very sexy.

See, unfortunately you can't wear them for super powers, and most don't really go anywhere – they're bolted to the floor or a mount with a limited radius of motion. It's obvious why there aren't any sci-fi horror movies about these machines going all Skynet and rebelling against their human oppressors. So, how does one take the only-very-interesting-to-specialized-geeks topic of industrial robotics and dress it up in heels and hottpants?

IFR estimates indicate that the total worldwide stock of operational industrial robots at the end of 2012, both new and old, was right around 1,235,600 individual units. Of the 160,000 sold last year, Japan alone added about 31,000 to their cart. With those purchases, now about 291,000 of the world's operational industrial robots reside in Japan. That's twice South Korea's count, nearly three times that of China, and 92,000 more robots than Canada, the United States, and Mexico combined.Another impressive perspective: 25% of all operational industrial robots in the world are located in a country where only 1.8% of humanity lives on .014% of planet Earth's habitable land area. Well done, Japan. Well done.