VOA慢速英語：日本無懼于機器人取代人類工作

English @ the Movies: 'Where Do You See Yourself In Five Years?'

日本無懼于機器人取代人類工作

In a factory near Tokyo, thousands of cans are filled with beer, capped, washed, and put into boxes at speeds of 1,500 cans a minute.

在東京附近一家工廠，數千個罐子被裝上啤酒、封口、清洗，然后裝箱，速度達到了每分鐘1500罐。

However, there are hardly any people in sight as the cans speed through processing.

然而，隨著罐頭的快速加工，卻幾乎看不到什么人。

Japan's Asahi Breweries operates the factory. The machines do almost all of the physical work. Humans make sure that the machines do the work right, and the automated sensing devices are working correctly.

日本的朝日啤酒公司經營著這家工廠。機器完成了幾乎所有的實質性工作。人類確保機器正常工作，同時自動感應裝置工作正常。

"Basically, nothing goes wrong. The lines are up and running 96 percent," said Shinichi Uno, a manager at the factory. "Although machines make things, human beings oversee the machines."

該工廠一名經理Shinichi Uno表示：“基本上不會出什么問題。這條生產線啟動運行了96%的生產能力。雖然是機器在做事，但是是人類在監(jiān)督機器的運轉。”

Leading the field

領先于該領域

While some countries, like the U.S., are debating the issue of robots taking jobs from humans, in Japan, the discussion is much different.

雖然美國之類的一些國家正在爭論機器奪走人類工作的問題，日本的討論卻截然不同。

Birth rates in Japan have been decreasing for many years. This has caused many in the country to fear the possibility of a labor shortage.

日本的出生率多年來一直在下降，這導致該國大部分人都在擔心勞動力短缺的可能性。

The introduction of robots has filled this need for labor. The robots appear to be a welcomed addition to the workforce in Japan.

機器人的引入填補了這種勞動力需求。機器人似乎成為了日本勞動大軍的有益補充。

Starting in the 1990's, Japan began a big push to develop robots for the workforce. It currently leads the world in the use of robots.

日本從上世紀90年代就開始大力推動用作勞動力的機器人的發(fā)展。該國目前在機器人應用方面領先于世界。

There are 1,562 robots for every 10,000 human workers. This is higher than Germany, with 1,133 robots, or the U.S., with 1,091 for every worker. The numbers come from a White House report submitted to Congress last year.

日本每1萬名人類勞動力就對應有1562名機器人，這高于德國的1133名以及美國的1091名機器人。這一數字出自于去年白宮提交給國會的一份報告。

The report says Japan also was ahead in robots used outside of the automobile industry, with 219 robots per 10,000 workers, compared to 76 for the U.S. and 147 for Germany.

該報告稱，日本在汽車工業(yè)以外領域的機器人應用也出于領先地位，達到了每1萬名員工對應219名機器人，相比之下美國對應為76名，德國為147名機器人。

A different work culture

不同的工作文化

There are some differences with Japan's work culture that might influence Japanese opinions about giving jobs to robots. One important difference is their "lifetime employment" system.

日本工作文化的某些不同可能影響了日本人對機器人就業(yè)的觀點。其中一個重要區(qū)別就是該國的“終身就業(yè)”制度。

In Japan, many major companies often keep their workers, even if their skills become outdated. They will use them instead for other tasks, said Koichi Iwamoto, a senior fellow at the Research Institute of Economy, Trade and Industry.

在日本，很多大型企業(yè)通常會保留他們的員工，即使他們的技術已經過時。日本經濟產業(yè)研究所高級研究員Koichi Iwamoto表示，這些企業(yè)會把員工調整到其它崗位。

The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, or OECD, gathers information about the use of robots in its member countries.

經濟合作與發(fā)展組織(簡稱經合組織)收集了該組織成員國在機器人應用方面的信息。

The information shows that increasing the use of robots or computer programs at work decreases the demand for mid-level or repetitive work tasks, such as operating assembly lines. But it increases the demand for low-and high-skilled jobs.

這些信息顯示，在工作中增加機器人或電腦程序的使用降低了對中級技能或重復性工作任務(例如操作裝配線)的需求。但是它提升了對低級和高技能工作的需求。

However, the OECD data showed employment conditions remained almost unchanged for Japan for the period from 2002 to 2014.

然而，經合組織數據顯示，2002年到2014年期間，日本的就業(yè)情況幾乎沒有發(fā)生變化。

That means companies in Japan were not trying as hard as those in the U.S. to replace humans with robots. Clerical workers, for example, were keeping their jobs although computers might do their jobs better.

這意味著日本企業(yè)并沒有像美國一樣竭力用機器人取代人工。例如，文職人員保住了他們的工作，雖然電腦可以更好地完成他們的工作。

Another example is how Japanese society has so far preferred to keep taxis instead of shifting to online ride services.

另一個例子是，日本社會迄今為止更傾向于繼續(xù)乘坐出租車，而不是轉向網上叫車服務。

A "reflective stage"

“反思階段”

But, machines have increasingly replaced people in Japan. Iwamoto says the country now has entered a "reflective stage." He says people are actually interested in having "human harmony with machines."

但是在日本，機器越來越多地取代人類。Iwamoto表示，該國目前已經進入了反思階段。他說，人們實際上是對“人類和機器和諧共處”感興趣。

"Some tasks may be better performed by people, after all," said Iwamoto.

Iwamoto表示：“畢竟有些工作可能由人類來做會更好。”

Kiyoshi Sakai also is an Asahi employee. He has worked at the company for 29 years. He said that in the past can caps were put into machines by hand. This was a repetitive task that was hard on the body and the mind.

Kiyoshi Sakai也是朝日啤酒的一名員工。他在該公司已經工作了29年。他說，以前啤酒罐的瓶蓋(拉環(huán))是用手工裝入機器。這是一項身心俱疲的重復性工作。

Now, machines have replaced many of those jobs, and he is grateful for the changes to his work life. Machines at the plant have become more than 50 percent smaller over the years. They are faster and more precise than 30 years ago.

現(xiàn)在，機器已經取代了很多這類工作，他也對自己工作期的變化感激不盡。多年來，該工廠的機器已經縮小了50%，它們比30年前更快更準確。

He said in the past, things used to go wrong all the time and people had to check the machines every 10 to 15 minutes. Now, problems with machines are so rare that people do not need to worry.

他說，過去會不停出現(xiàn)問題，人們不得不每10到15分鐘檢查一次機器?，F(xiàn)在，機器很少出問題，人們不用再為此擔心。

Like many workers in Japan, Sakai is not worried about his job disappearing. After people no longer needed to work on assembly lines, his position was upgraded to the general affairs section, a common administrative department in Japanese companies.

像日本很多工人一樣，Sakai也不擔心他的工作會消失。人們不再需要在生產線上工作之后，他的職位升級到了總務科，這是日本企業(yè)的普通行政部門。

"I remember the work being so hard. But when I think back, and it was all about delivering great beer to everyone, it makes me so proud," said Sakai, who drinks beer every day.

每天都喝啤酒的Sakai表示：“我記得這項工作很辛苦，但是回想起來，這是在為大家提供好喝的啤酒，這讓我很自豪。”

"I have no regrets. This is a stable job."

“我沒什么遺憾，這是一項穩(wěn)定的工作。”

I'm Phil Dierking. And I'm Alice Bryant.

菲爾·德爾金。我是艾麗絲·布萊恩特報道。