Kenji Urada

Kenji Urada (c. 1944 – July 4, 1981) was a Japanese factory worker who was killed by a robot. Urada is often incorrectly reported to be the first person killed by a robot,

Urada was a maintenance worker at the Kawasaki Heavy Industries plant in Akashi. pinned him against an adjacent machine and either crushed him or stabbed him in the back. The circumstances of his death were not made public until after an investigation by the Hyōgo labor standards bureau was completed. The investigation concluded that workers were not sufficiently familiar with the machines and the machines were not sufficiently regulated. The robot that killed Urada was removed from the Akashi plant, and man-high fences were erected around the other two robots in the plant in the wake of the accident.