The Japanese service robot market is expected to triple in five year
Bloombergreports that Japanese businesses are increasingly turning to service robots as a way to supplement their workforce due to an aging population.
According to research firm Fuji Keizai, the country’s market for service robots will nearly triple by 2030 to Y=400billion ($2.7billion). The Recruit Works Institute estimates that Japan will have a labor shortage of 11 million people by 2040. A government-backed institute predicts that 40% of the population by 2065 will be 65 years old or older.
Bloomberg cites Skylark as the country’s biggest table service restaurant chain that uses around 3,000 robots with cat-eared ears to deliver food to tables. YasukoTagawa, 71, estimated that robotic assistance now makes up half of her job at one of the chain’s Tokyo-based restaurants.
Tagawa once told a robot “Thanks for all your hard work.” I’ll count on you.
