How Japan Made Robots Part of Everyday Life | Momentum

A spectacle of lights. A showcase of what humans can achieve beyond the limits of our bodies. A system that can reshape human potential.

Japan’s relationship with robotics is unique. It’s the world’s number one industrial robot manufacturer. But more than that the dream of a robotic future feels real here.

Anime. Manga. Construction.

Manufacturing. Hospitality. You name it.

Chances are no matter where you go in Japan, you will find a robot created by a future-minded industrialist, and embraced by the public. These machines mean big business for Japan, These machines mean big business for Japan, with the country producing and designing more industrial robots than anywhere else in the world. I’m Haslinda Amin.

And this is Momentum. Welcome to Henn na Hotel. Japan’s dominance in the field of robotics is no accident.

The country of 123 million people began developing industrial robots in the 1960s and became a leader in robotics production in the 1980s. Japan’s unique relationship with robotics is shaped by both culture and crisis. Its rapidly aging population, a labor crunch, strong government support in robotics production and development, and its tradition of animism - the belief that everything, animate and inanimate, embody a spirit - fanned the flames of Japan’s love affair with robots.

12% of Japan’s convenience stores don’t open 24 hours due to a labor shortage. A recent study found Japan may face a shortfall of more than 11 million workers by 2040. Companies are betting on robots to fill those roles.

These robots could work 24/7, transporting all manner of goods, and gliding along their precisely calculated paths, their synchronized movements a flawless dance. Isn’t it beautiful when you witness the meeting of human ambition and mechanical might? I’m in Tokyo to meet Japanese robot manufacturer Telexistence, which just raised 170 million dollars from investors.

So Jin, how do companies benefit from having your retail robot? Especially in Japan, so people tend to think when you use the robot, maybe the companies can bring down the cost right? But in the context of Japan, no, that’s not the way it is.

Because we, as you may know, we are already facing the labor shortage issues, aging issues, right? So it’s not about the cost. It’s about how you’re going to run your business in a more sustainable way.

Our robot is not replacing all the human jobs. We want to automate the repetitive job, the boring job. Jin’s ambitions extend beyond reshaping retail work.

He wants the average person to benefit from his robotic inventions too. Do you think robots and humans can coexist well? Or will there be tensions?

People tend to think, you know, it's a bad thing, because you know, the robot AI taking the job from them. We want to use the robot with the AI as a basic asset, meaning people own these basic assets, and then have an income through the robot. We want to let the individuals to own the robot to have a basic income for their living.

Our goal is after we automate the job with a robot, we try to create a surplus for the humans. And then humans can use that surplus to spend more good time with their families, or spend time on what they want to do. That's the society we want to create with robots.

Telexistence is part of a wave of tech start-ups that have popped up in Japan, in part due to Japan’s history of robotic innovation, and a younger generation shying away from the idea of lifelong employment at big firms. Has it been surprising that there’s been so much innovation coming out of Japan, are we seeing a resurgence of innovation? In this era, why there’s a chance for the Japanese startup to going out, is because we don’t have to deal with the language or cultures.

So for example, robotics. Let’s say our robot is is picking and placing the rice balls in the convenience stores, right? When we bring our robot to the US the only difference is picking a sandwich and then placing onto that shelf.

So you don’t really have to deal with the culture or language to provide our service in different countries. So that is, in that sense, we have more of a chance to do that. In 2021, Telexistence partnered with FamilyMart, a major convenience store chain here in Japan.

It’s deployed 300 robots in their stores so far. Next year, they plan to deploy 3,000 across Japan. And they’re also expanding to the United States.

For Telexistence, what does the US market represent? In terms of the business, of course, that’s the biggest market in the world. Make it there, make it everywhere.

So we want to actually deploy the robot in the biggest market. And then, because we are doing the hardware, right. So if we can deploy the hardware in the biggest market, meaning we can bring down our costs, too.

And then we can deploy the robot to the rest of the world. To us, that has a pretty critical influence on us. Jin hopes as generative AI develops, the next generation of retail robots will be able to do even more.

The current robot we deployed right now is a single task robot, meaning the robot can only do one thing, restocking the drinks in the backyard. But if really the generative AI evolves, and when I say it evolves, I mean not only generating the text or images or videos, but if the foundation model can generate the motions, then the robot can also move from a single task to a multitasking robot because you don’t have to spend too much cost to teach and train the motions to the robot. So that’s the direction we’re looking to right now.

Japanese firms have historically excelled in creating robots. Now, companies like Telexistence are taking its expertise in hardware, and cementing Japan’s technological edge by developing their own software. We built our hardware, a customized hardware.

You cannot just buy the robot in the market and then apply to the convenience stores, convenience stores in Japan, because that’s not enough, we have to build a customised one, right? When we control the robot, right, we combined the AI machine learning with remote control, that’s another differentiation. My visit to Telexistence showed me that in Japan, robots are not just a solution to the socioeconomic issues the country is facing.

They represent the possible future of work, in all sectors of the economy. You know, robots are not just rewriting the equation in retail. They’re also coming for agriculture.

I’m in Osaka, where robots have been deployed in farming. So Jum, this is a harvester, but it is not an ordinary harvester. I want to take a look, shall we?

Ok. This is a combine harvester. It’s a machine used for harvesting rice.

You can check data on this monitor, including the protein percentage, moisture level, and collection volume. You can see all that displayed here. How is that useful for farmers?

This machine is equipped with GNSS (Global Navigation Satellite System). So we combine the GNSS data with what’s shown here. And we’ll use all the gathered data, to improve upon the quality of rice for next year’s harvest.

We want to grow even better-tasting Japanese rice, and more of it. Ken, what are the pain points you are trying to address? What challenges are there?

Japan’s farmers are aging and the number of farms continues to dwindle. On top of that, we’re seeing fewer people taking over the business. Knowing there won’t be enough workers to operate machinery, what we need to do first is advance autonomous driving.

At the same time, we’re losing farmers with all this experience and knowledge. So we need to preserve their know-how by turning it into data, that can be incorporated into a usable system. So having said that, Ken, what’s the future of farming?

How will it look like? I mean, this is an industry that’s been so labor intensive. How much will that change?

In the future, farmers will be able to manage operations remotely from home. I think that way we’ll also be able to produce more and improve quality. By incorporating more data, we can better balance supply and demand.

That could also help eliminate food waste. Risks like uncertain weather, yields or crop prices are a big part of the agriculture industry. Kubota’s smart systems aim to reduce those risks.

When you take a look at farming, there are different requirements. You know, farms are different sizes. They grow different crops, you know, different seasons for them.

How do these machines and robots meet the various requirements? How do they adapt? There are all kinds of agriculture, like producing rice, dry-field crops and fruits.

But all of the farming data and planning, can be streamlined using tech, instead of just hiring people to operate machinery, new tech helps individuals and even mid or large-sized farms, create a system that works for them. From planning to sowing seeds and harvesting, they can efficiently map out the entire process. With everything integrated into one system, it becomes possible to create a setup that’s tailored to specific needs.

Because of their small size, Japanese farms need compact and precise machines. Kubota has cornered this market and it’s pushing technology they hope will transform how these small plots are managed. We’ve been collecting data using cameras, which helps us determine the best timing for harvest.

We are researching ways to get robots to do tasks, usually done by experienced farmers. That is what we’re trying to make our strength. With the use of robots, crops are uniformly consistent and food waste is reduced - all good news for a farm’s bottomline.

Kubota’s research institute in Japan is building systems for autonomous driving, which they hope will be revolutionary. Kubota’s tech allows us to move a bunch of small tractors at once. In modern-day farming, a large tractor causes all kinds of problems, like bad drainage or poor crop growth when it enters a rice field because it compacts soil.

In the future, there will be many small compact trucks like ours, these tractors will be linked together and operate autonomously. With today’s technology, it’s now possible to use GPS and cameras to farm within 2-3 centimeters. This is precision farming.

Beyond improving operational efficiency, these robots can also help farmers analyze and review what they do on the ground, to ensure better yields and higher quality. By collecting data and utilizing current AI tools, regardless of location or climate, farmers will be able to increase quality and volume each year. By using GPS we can pull data on crop quality and quantity in any location.

By utilizing all of this, we can grow better crops. Agriculture plays a major role in producing food, that is essential for human survival. So the question is how to do this efficiently and turn it into a profitable business.

In order to gain profit, it is necessary to lower costs and at the same time produce good products and sell them at a high price. If we want to go to a farm in the future, how would it look like? Maybe in the future, when you walk into a rice field, you’ll find lots of machines working on their own, and they’ll be working freely for 24 hours, 7 days a week.

I wonder where the farmers will be when this happens, and they might be at home drinking coffee, or sake, or even going on a trip somewhere with his wife. In such conditions, agriculture is still possible. I think the world will become like that.

With Japanese farmers rapidly aging and a nationwide labor crunch, it makes economic sense to transform the agricultural industry with robotics. The decline in the number of farmers is a scenario playing out in Japan and globally. But, to meet the world’s needs, food production will have to increase 70 per cent by 2050, compared with 2009.

Enter robots. The global agriculture robots market was valued at just under $6 billion in 2021, and is expected to hit $94 billion by the end of 2030. Visiting Kubota has shown me that the agricultural industry, known to be slow to digitize, can transform itself with robots.

I wonder if construction, another industry slow to adopt automation, can innovate too. I’m heading to Komatsu, which is a trailblazer in the construction industry. It is innovating, it is betting big on technology to counter Japan’s labor crisis.

Chike-san, it is really exciting to see the smart construction technology that Komatsu has created. It has the potential to really transform an industry that's labor intensive, also physically demanding for workers. First, I would like to eliminate any dangerous work on a construction site.

For example, all the physically demanding jobs will be replaced by machines. The introduction of robots and automated processes in construction, means Komatsu can customize the building process for each site. In order to solve our customers’ problems, we go to their sites and understand their work and operation, so we can make a difference.

Firstly, we precisely reproduce the construction site in cyberspace. This allows us to explore the space virtually. And then we optimize the construction site in the digital realm and bring it over to the real world.

The number of construction workers in Japan fell to 4. 8 million in 2023, from a peak of 6. 9 million in 1997.

With labor shortages a long-term problem, companies like Komatsu have turned to robotics to fill the gaps. For example, in the construction industry, it is said that in the next few years there will be a labor shortage of about 30% of the required labor force. We believe our technology can help solve social issues, such as the acute labor shortage that our customers are facing.

Especially in Japan, we have massive disasters like earthquakes. Labor shortage in the construction industry will greatly delay disaster recovery and reconstruction efforts. Komatsu’s vision of fully autonomous construction machines is still years away.

To realize its goal of smart construction, Komatsu has formed partnerships with other technology companies, like Japanese telco NTT and SONY. So what is the vision? Do you see the construction industry in the end being, I guess, populated by machines, robots and drones right from the start?

I believe in the future, many young people will play an active role in the construction industry. For example, you can remotely operate machinery at a construction site from your home, at any time you like. For example, remotely operating machinery on construction sites While robots and smart systems are not yet capable of working independently on construction sites, Komatsu is already deploying a hybrid method where machines and humans work side by side.

If we have to go to the site, of course we’ll go, but soon we will be able to get these jobs done from the office. So we don’t have to go to the site at all. We can remotely operate machines, or make plans, etc.

I dream of a construction site like that. Smart tools and robots are streamlining construction sites across Japan. Drnes take photos of a site, and the data collected is processed by Komatsu’s app, and then analyzed by its human staff.

So we are looking at our job site overseas. You see the 3D data here right? So this is taken by a drone and also processed with our Smart Construction Edge.

3D data in a matter of short time. When you talk about data, what data exactly did the drone pick up? Location information, and also the color and height.

Those kinds of data are included. So based on that, if you move the picture into our Smart Construction Edge, the device, it rapidly changes the picture into 3D data, and then onboard it to this smart construction dashboard seamlessly. So MrShike, with this kind of data, you save cost and minimize errors?

But it also means that your workforce has to be skilled and talented. Is it difficult to get the kind of? Very easy.

Like he said it’s very easy. You know why? Because I’m not from, I don’t have any construction background.

I studied marketing in university but, looking at the job site like a construction professional. So, I’ll say this technology is very easy for everyone. The narrative surrounding robots right now is pretty negative.

It’s about how robots will take away jobs. But in the course of the conversations, you know with innovators, you get a sense that robots are there to perform the jobs that people don’t want to do. In Japan, robots offer a vision of what the future might look like.

One where people’s time is freed from hard labor and menial tasks. But skepticism is justified. We’ve been promised this before - that technology will make our lives easier - only to find out it’s not so simple.

Here in Japan those concerns are paired with hope. Technological optimism is what drives Japan’s scientists to pioneer the robotics revolution, and remodel our world into one where everyone, human and robot can live, and work, and play side by side. Check out our next Momentum episode.