Japan’s service robot market projected to triple in five years

Faced with an aging population and labor shortages, Japanese businesses are increasingly relying on service robots to supplement their workforce, according to Bloomberg.

Research firm Fuji Keizai projects the country’s service robot market to nearly triple by 2030, to ¥400 billion ($2.7 billion). Potentially driving that growth: The Recruit Works Institute projects that the country will face a labor shortfall of 11 million by 2040, while a government-backed institute estimates that nearly 40% of the population will be 65 or older by 2065.

To illustrate how robots are filling the gap, Bloomberg points to the country’s largest table service restaurant chain, Skylark, which uses around 3,000 cat-eared robots to bring food to tables. At one the chain’s Tokyo restaurants, 71-year-old Yasuko Tagawa estimated that half her job now involves some form of robotic assistance.

At one point, Tagawa told a robot, “Thanks for your hard work. I’ll be counting on you.”