ASIMO, the humanoid robot developed by Honda Motor Co., started work Monday as a department store clerk for customer services at Takashimaya Co. in Tokyo.
Sent to Takashimaya on a one-year loan, ASIMO lined up with its colleagues at an entrance of the department store's Shinjuku outlet to welcome customers and provide them with information about store events.
The latest assignment marks a foray into new territory for the robot, which had been loaned to companies to handle reception jobs since it was created in October 2000.
Takashimaya said ASIMO will tour its 17 other domestic outlets after completing a monthlong customer-service training program at its Shinjuku store, where the robot will appear at the entrance twice a day.
ASIMO -- short for Advanced Step in Innovative Mobility -- is powered by a nickel metal hydride battery.
Sogo demolition starts
OSAKA (Kyodo) Work began Monday to demolish the Sogo department store on Midosuji street here, the chain's first outlet.
The site will be cleared so that the store can be rebuilt as a 14-story building.
The decision to rebuild the outlet follows the collapse of the Sogo group in July 2000.
The new store will open in 2005.
The old eight-story building was designed by renowned architect Togo Murano and completed in 1937, standing next to a Daimaru department store built in 1933.
