Yamaguchi: University Hospital Gives Locals Peer Behind Curtain, Showing Surgical Robot Demonstration

The Yomiuri Shimbun

16:10 JST, November 29, 2025&

UBE, Yamaguchi — Yamaguchi University Hospital in Ube, Yamaguchi Prefecture, recently held a special event to show gratitude to the local community. The facility was packed with families and other visitors who came to tour it and see features such as a high-precision robot that assists the doctors there.

The hospital had been undergoing renovations since 2014 to improve its functioning, including the installation of new air conditioning systems to prevent patient infections, and it had a grand reopening in September.

The event, which was held on Nov. 8, was planned to commemorate this occasion and to deepen public understanding of the hospital. A special booth in the outpatient building lobby offered visitors the chance to get hands-on experience of what doctors’ and nurses’ jobs are like, while health consultations were held near the entrance.

Participants enjoyed interacting with doctors and nurses whom they would not normally come into contact with outside of medical appointments.

In the operating room, an endoscopic surgical support robot called Da Vinci was specially unveiled. The robot has four arms, the ends of which take various forms, such as a pair of scissors. Visitors were treated to a demonstration of how it is used to perform operations such as suturing.

“I was amazed by the robot’s precise movements,” said a 7-year-old elementary school student from Yamaguchi City. “I want to try controlling it myself.”