Toyota Motor Corp has unveiled a 10cm-tall talking robot called Kirobo Mini in Japan.

The doe-eyed palm-sized robot joins a growing list of companion robots including the upcoming Jibo, designed by robotics experts at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology that appears like a swiveling lamp, and Paro, a baby robot which serves as a therapeutic machine for elderly dementia patients.

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Kirobo Mini is the smaller version of Kirobo, the robot that Toyota jointly developed and sent into space in 2013 along with Koichi Wakata, the first Japanese astronaut to command the International Space Station.

The robot aims to tap into Japan’s aging demographic trend. The country has one of the oldest population among the world’s industrial nations, where plummeting birth rates have left many women childless. Kirobo Mini is designed to be a simple communication partner. It is expected to be launched in 2017.

“He wobbles a bit, and this is meant to emulate a seated baby, which hasn’t fully developed the skills to balance itself. This vulnerability is meant to invoke an emotional connection,” said Fuminori Kataoka, Kirobo Mini’s chief design engineer.

Toyota designed Kirobo to recognize and react to human emotions while engaging in conversation and moving its head and hands. It has a price tag of ¥39 800 ($400) and a monthly ¥300 ($3) subscription fee, according to The Verge. The robot needs to be connected to a smartphone.

Japan is one of the world's leading users of industrial robots. According to International Federation of Robots, Japan is next to South Korea with 314 machines per 100,000 employees, Reuters reported.