The Japan Airlines trial comes as the country sees a surge in inbound tourism and a worsening labor shortage, the airline noted in a press release
The airline states the humanoid robots will move luggage and cargo on the tarmac at Haneda Airport(Image: Getty Images)
In Japan, robots will soon be tested as baggage handlers at an airport starting next month.
The Japan Airlines trial comes as the country sees a surge in inbound tourism and a worsening labor shortage, the airline noted in a press release.
“Currently, the aviation industry faces a serious challenge in ground handling labor shortages due to factors such as an increase in inbound tourism coupled with a declining working-age population,” the press release read.
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“In response to this situation, JGS and GMO AIR have agreed to leverage their respective strengths and commence a demonstration experiment to verify the potential for humanoid robots to achieve labor savings and workload reduction in ground handling operations,” it added.
The airline states the humanoid robots will move luggage and cargo on the tarmac at Haneda Airport, which serves Tokyo and handles more than 60 million passengers a year.
The president of GMO AI and Robotics, Tomohiro Uchida, said: “While airports appear highly automated and standardized, their back-end operations still rely heavily on human labour and face serious labor shortages.”
In the first two months of 2026, more than 7 million people visited the country, according to the Japan National Tourism Organization.(Image: Getty Images)
The robots can operate continuously for 2 to 3 hours, and the firms plan to use them to perform other tasks, including cleaning aircraft cabins.
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In the first two months of 2026, more than 7 million people visited the country, according to the Japan National Tourism Organization.
The experiment, which will end in 2028, is designed to lessen the burden on human employees.
Yoshiteru Suzuki, the president of JAL Ground Service, said using robots to perform physically demanding work would “inevitably reduce the burden on workers and provide significant benefits to employees”, according to the Kyodo news agency.
He added that humans will continue to perform other tasks, such as safety management.
A video from Monday’s media demonstration shows a 51-inch-tall robot wearing shoes “pushing” cargo onto a conveyor belt next to a JAL passenger plane.
Japan will need more than 6.5 million foreign workers in 2040 to meet its growth targets, according to an estimate. The country is seeing a surge in foreign population in recent years, however the government is under political pressure to rein in immigration.
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