The Financial Times had an article (paywall) about how Japan, beset by a labour shortage, is turning to automation and robotics to deal with this problem.
The article presents some startling numbers which illustrate the problem facing certain industries.
Construction
The number of people employed in this industry has fallen 30% since the 1997 peak and currently only 12% of workers are under age 29, 36% over age 55.
This has affected the economy by delaying projects and raising costs as wages need to rise to attract labour. The 2025 Osaka Expo is apparently affected by this.
They are turning to robots to automate labour-intensive tasks
Trucking
Vending machines (which were introduced to deal with labour shortages) depend on a fleet of truck drivers to keep them filled and now there is a shortage of truck drivers.
Now companies are turning to trains (which are more efficient) to transport goods and for some companies, using robots to load/unload goods.
Farming
The numbers here are pretty frightening. 43% of farmers are aged over 75 and average age of all farmers are 68.
This is affecting the government's self-sufficiency targets, as they want to control dependency on food imports in rice, vegetables, seafood and so on. This is also affecting other goods that depend on these crops, such as sake.
The industry is turning to robots to deal with this problem.
Retail
The shortage of service staff is reducing the operating hours of convenience stalls, called combini.
The way they deal with this problem is using digital avatars, which are operated by people who want to work from home (such as a disabled person). It seems a person can operate a few of them, which allows them to work night shifts and/or stores in remote locations.
While the ideas seem exciting, these are all in the early testing stages so there is no guarantee any of them will work.
Taking a quick look at the Raicho 1 robot for agriculture, it is actually part of an automated system comprising of the robot (to manage weeds), drones (to plant rice seeds) and sensors (to monitor and manage water levels). This is in an early testing stage. Interestingly, the objective of the robot is to deal with the abandoned farmland, instead of getting higher yields from existing farmland.
Similarly, the digital avatar is in early trial stages at Lawson convenience stores and according to this article, it is not working quite as it should.
Regardless, this is an interesting space to watch as Singapore and other countries face labour shortages. Can these solutions, if they work, be used here as well?
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