Hello Kitty meets demographic decline.
Or something.
From Bloomberg, March 6:
As Japan copes with a labor shortage, the service robot market is expected to triple in the next five years.
A cat-themed robot with big blue eyes glances from side to side as it purrs across a Tokyo restaurant, searching for the customers who ordered strawberry parfaits covered in cream to go with a large, piping hot pizza.
“Your order’s here,” the robot says, arriving with a crisp 90-degree turn that lights up the faces of the patrons at the table. “Meow!”
Yasuko Tagawa, 71, and her coworker from Nepal, Ranjit Dhami Khawas, are the only humans working the floor of the packed restaurant in the Mita neighborhood, a short walk from Tokyo Tower in the center of the city.
This isn’t a scene from Studio Ghibli’s latest animated fantasy. Rather it’s an increasingly common sight at more than 2,000 restaurants operated across the country by Skylark Holdings Co., the nation’s largest table service restaurant chain.
Faced with a severe labor shortage and one of the world’s most rapidly aging populations, service-sector businesses in Japan are increasingly investing in robots that don’t need expert supervision and can work alongside people instead of replacing them. So-called service robots are also making it easier for firms to employ older or foreign workers — crucial to plugging the shortfall — by helping them cope with language barriers or the physical demands of a role.
“My job’s no trouble at all when I’m working with robots,” said Tagawa in between wiping down tables. She works up to 20 hours a week at Skylark’s Gusto restaurant in Mita, including helping train new human recruits. Tagawa started working there six years ago, and says about half her job now draws on the assistance of machines. “At my age it does get harder to move around,” she said.
The restaurant’s digital interface, with orders taken via tablets and delivered to customers by robots, also makes life easier for foreign staff such as Khawas, who started working there in January.
“Seeing all these cat robots was a surprise at first,” said the 20-year-old language school student, who is still polishing his skills in Japanese. “But they sure come in handy.”
Japan has been grappling with demographic difficulties for years and there’s no prospect of respite for labor-hungry businesses. The nation has the lowest unemployment rate among OECD countries and by 2040 will face a labor shortfall of 11 million, according to Recruit Works Institute. Almost 40% of Japan’s population will be aged 65 or older by 2065, a government-backed institute estimates.
Shortages are particularly acute in sectors such as hospitality and caregiving. As of January, there were around three restaurant server openings available for each job seeker, while the ratio was about four to one for caregivers, according to the labor ministry....
....MUCH MORE
Opportunity is where you find it.