They’re trying to make Astroboy!

From the Japan Times:

Japanese researchers in robot technology are advocating a grand project, under which the government would spend 50 billion yen a year over three decades to develop a humanoid robot with the mental, physical and emotional capacity of a 5-year-old human.

The researchers believe the Atom Project, inspired by the popular robot animation series “Tetsuwan Atom” [known here in North America as Astroboy — Joey] by the late cartoonist Osamu Tezuka, would help promote scientific and technological advances in Japan, just like the U.S. Apollo Project, which not only succeeded in landing men on the moon but contributed to a broad range of technological breakthroughs.

I wonder if this robot will have machine guns in his butt, just like Astroboy did.