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Now CNN's i-List is all about Asia this month, and right now our focus is on Japan.

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It's a country on the cutting edge of technology.

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And Kyung Lah shows us how robots are helping the disabled and the elderly live better lives.

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For 30 years, Noburu Matsumoto has been severely disabled.

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A brain injury from a motorcycle accident left him confined to a wheelchair -- until now.

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Standing, walking, once only imagined, now tentative steps with just minimal assistance carried out by these white robotic legs. 

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Do you ever get tired of the feeling of walking?

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No, no, never.

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Never?

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Never.

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This is the leg.

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Yes, this is the legs, and this part is [the] power unit.

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Professor Yoshiyuki Sankai is the inventor of the hybrid assistive limb, or HAL.

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A robot suit he calls it, turning brain waves into actual movement.

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So the sensors in the arms are telling the machine to move.

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Yes, so the sensor detects a human's intentions and finally [the] robots walks instead of the human's body. 

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So I'm going to tell the arm to move, but I'm not going to move my arm. And it moves.

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Yes.

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Professor Sankai is developing a number of potential uses of the HAL suit,

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including a suit that gives caretakers super-human power to help lift the elderly.

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This is the stuff of science fiction, like in the movie Iron Man,

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but no military applications for professor Sankai, who says he's turned down multi-million dollar defense contracts. 

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Yes. No military usage.

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It's a decision on your part?

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Yes, my decisions.

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From the whimsical to the more amusing, Japan has a robust robot research field.

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Robots who look exactly like their inventors to robots who will make you your breakfast.

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But professor Sankai's invention differs in this way: it has a real use, right now, tackling a very real social problem. 

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Professor Sankai's target: use his inventions to help Japan's exploding elderly population.

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By 2050, 40 percent of Japan will be over the age of 65.

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Coupled with one of the world's lowest birthrates, that means fewer young to care for the sick and elderly. 

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Some of the patients can stand up and start walking. At that time, their faces completely changes.

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And when I see these smiling faces, my heart is also encouraged.

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Do you have more hope about the future? 

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I want to run.

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You want to run next.

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That will have to wait, but the possibility -- now one step closer.