"Hello. Excuse me for remaining seated. It's been nearly 100 years, hasn't it?"

So said an android version of literary giant Natsume Soseki in a calm voice when it was unveiled to the media in Tokyo on Thursday.

The robot, dressed in a light brown tweed suit and leather shoes and sporting the writer's trademark mustache, is the work of Nishogakusha University in Tokyo, which collaborated with robotics researcher Hiroshi Ishiguro of Osaka University.