Kawada Industries' metallic marionette HRP-2, or Promet, was built to assist the hands-on replication of individual and cooperative human movements but a soaring profile broadened the robot's purpose, having won an audience with heir apparent to Japan's titular throne, Prince Naruhito. Promet's program must have successfully adopted the niceties of Imperial reception, for the meeting at Tokyo University was reported in the news and the physiological difference between synthetic and organic was duly noted:
[Naruhito] let the robot take several steps toward him to shake his hand, as other humanoids looked on.
Who would pass up a retinue hard-wired for plaudits? Nobody, least of all those who trade in public opinion futures. One wonders if enterprising members of Japan's Liberal Democratic Party, off-balance after failing in the Diet to authorize Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi's postal privatization reform, are furtively peeking into robotics laboratories — asking questions about the design and deployment of progressive, selfless and loyal politicians for the House of Councillors.