Robots are already being used in some airports across Japan, including for security patrol and retail.
Japan welcomed more than seven million foreign visitors in the first two months of this year, according to statistics from JTB Group, which runs Japan’s largest travel agency.
“While airports appear highly automated and standardised, their back-end operations still rely heavily on human labour and face serious labour shortages,” GMO AI & Robotics’ president Tomohiro Uchida told reporters.
Using robots for physically demanding tasks will “provide significant benefits to employees”, Kyodo news agency quoted Yoshiteru Suzuk, the president of JAL’s Ground Service, saying.
But he noted that some duties, including safety management, can only be handled by humans.
