"I will not need to come here again," he told a conference in Sydney
earlier this week. "I will send my android instead."

The busy Japanese scientist expects his $500,000 lookalike will prove
most valuable for avoiding the regular trips to see his research
students at the ATR Intelligent Robotics and Communication
Laboratories in Kyoto, an hour's drive away from his Osaka office.

http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2006/01/31/1138590502278.html