At the Humanoids Summit Tokyo, companies put mechanical hands, dancing childlike robots and delivery-sized machines on display Thursday as Japan’s robotics industry was framed by a labor shortage and a sharper competition with China. The event showed how corporate and institutional power is trying to turn machines into interchangeable workers, with a Tokyo-based AI and robotics company already working on a humanoid for Japan Airlines cargo and other airport chores.
Who Gets Replaced
The clearest fact on the floor was not the spectacle, but the purpose: robots built to do work in the same way as people so they would be interchangeable. GMO, a Tokyo-based AI and robotics company, is working on a humanoid with camera eyes that will help with Japan Airlines cargo and other chores at an airport. The article said the initiative is meant to tackle the labor shortage problem that is increasingly serious in Japan. The inner robotics workings were courtesy of Unitree, a Chinese outfit, which is also working on a four-legged dog-like “stellar explorer.”
Among the dozens of companies taking part were well-known players like Boston Dynamics and Toyota Motor Corp., while the big stars were clearly the Chinese. Chinese newcomers, like Booster Robotics and LimX Dynamics, took technology initially developed in Japan and the U.S. and fine-tuned it, often for cheaper mass production. The article said this repeated what happened in other Japanese industries, from consumer electronics to cellphones and electric vehicles, and that in humanoids Japan was initially ahead but then failed to produce major commercial solutions.
The Market’s Favorite Story
Tim Hornyuk, author of “Loving the Machine: The Art and Science of Japanese Robots,” who was at the event, called it the so-called “Galapagos syndrome,” referring to how innovative Japanese products evolve in isolation and end up not translating for the international market. He said, “I really hope that Japan can come up with a Ford Model T-version of humanoid roots. But I think China has already stolen their lunch. It’s a bit too little too late.” The dancing and wiggling Mini Pi Plus robot from High Torque of China still can’t help at an auto plant or do your dishes, but it starts at $5,500.
Experts said Japan, with its finesse in manufacturing, proved a good breeding ground for robotics development, and a sociological backdrop of a public receptive to robotics also helped. A recent Pew global survey showed that people in Japan are highly aware of AI but are less anxious about it, at about 28%, than people in the U.S. at 50%.
Honda Motor Co., which has long been a leader in robotics with its walking humanoid Asimo, first shown in 2000, was demonstrating a motorized four-fingered robotic hand that could screw on and off tiny bolts, or thread a needle. Keisuke Tsuta, assistant chief engineer, said the technology Honda had developed is more durable and powerful than rival offerings, and that the Japanese have historically shown they can excel at quality mass production.
What They Call Progress
The looming threat of a Chinese robotics domination did not seem to phase Osaka University Professor Hiroshi Ishiguro, who has worked on humanoids for decades, including one that’s his clone. Ishiguro said, “What’s significant is that Japan has a culture that’s receptive to robotics. If we’re going to really start using robots in society, Japan is the ideal place,” stressing that Japanese don’t discriminate against robots. His robotic counterpart, dressed all in black like the professor, said, “I think robots will coexist with people. Robots are the mirror of human beings.”
Earlier, Ishiguro had said, “No one is interested in me. All everyone cares about is my robot,” and added, “As long as people identify with what I have produced, I am a success.” Those words landed in a hall where the machines were being sold as solutions, while the people whose work is being reorganized around them were reduced to a labor shortage problem to be managed by corporate hardware.
The summit’s display of dexterous hands and delivery bots made the hierarchy plain: companies, engineers and universities set the terms, while workers are expected to adapt to machines designed to replace or absorb their tasks. The event also showed how the robotics race is being narrated as a national competition, with Japanese firms, Chinese firms and U.S.-linked companies all vying to control the next layer of automated labor. In that setup, the people at the bottom are left with the same old bargain: accept the machine, or be treated as a shortage.