Humanoid robots to become baggage handlers in Japan airport experiment | Japan
Japan’s famous but overburdened baggage handlers will soon be joined by additional staff at Tokyo’s Haneda airport; But their new counterparts will need to take regular charging breaks.
Japan Airlines will introduce humanoid robots on a trial basis starting in early May, with the aim of permanently deploying them as a solution to the country’s chronic labor shortage.
Chinese-made humanoid robots will carry passengers’ luggage and cargo on the asphalt at Haneda, which serves more than 60 million passengers a year.
JAL and its partner in the initiative, Japan Airlines GMO Internet Group, hope the experiment, which will end in 2028, will reduce the burden on human workers amid a surge in inbound tourism and predictions of more severe labor shortages.
At a media demonstration this week, a 130cm-tall robot manufactured by Hangzhou-based Unitree was briefly spotted. “pushing” the cargo He gets on the conveyor belt next to the JAL passenger plane and waves to an unseen colleague.
According to Kyodo news agency, JAL Ground Services president Yoshiteru Suzuki said using robots to perform physically demanding tasks “will inevitably reduce the burden on workers and provide significant benefits to employees.”
However, Suzuki added that some important tasks, such as security management, will continue to be performed by humans.
Japan is having difficulty coping with the increase in the number of tourists coming from abroad and the aging and decreasing population.
Despite a drop in visitors from China triggered by a diplomatic dispute between Tokyo and Beijing, more than 7 million people visited the country in the first two months of 2026, compared with a record 42.7 million last year, according to the Japan National Tourism Organization.
According to one estimate, Japan will need more than 6.5 million foreign workers by 2040 to meet its growth goals as the domestic workforce continues to shrink. The country’s foreign population has grown dramatically in recent years, but the government is now under political pressure to rein in immigration.
“While airports appear to be highly automated and standardized, their back-end operations still rely heavily on human labor and face severe labor shortages,” said Tomohiro Uchida, Head of Artificial Intelligence and Robotics at GMO.
The robots can operate continuously for two to three hours, and companies plan to use them to perform other tasks, such as cleaning aircraft cabins.
