Japan Airlines will be testing humanoid robots at Tokyo’s Haneda Airport starting next month. The bots are designed to move baggage and cargo on the tarmac.
The trial run is expected to last through 2028 as Japan deals with a surge in tourism and a shortage of workers.
In a demonstration for the media, a robot manufactured by Hangzhou-based Unitree was seen “pushing” cargo to a conveyer belt near a JAL passenger plane and “waving” to a colleague.
In a demonstration for the media, a robot manufactured by Hangzhou-based Unitree was seen “pushing” cargo to a conveyer belt near a JAL passenger plane. (Aviation Wire)
The robots can operate for a few hours before needing a recharge and could eventually take on other tasks like cleaning out aircraft cabins.
Humans will still handle the critical safety jobs, but these humanoids will try doing the heavy lifting when it comes to checked items.
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 labor and face serious labor shortages.”
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Haneda Airport, one of two airports serving the Greater Tokyo Area, serves more than 60 million passengers a year. More than 7 million people visited Japan in the first two months of 2026, according to the Japan National Tourism Organization, and a record 42.7 million visited last year.
Japan is reportedly struggling to cope with a surge in tourists from overseas as well as an aging, declining population. The country will need an estimated 6.5 million foreign workers in 2040 to reach growth targets as the indigenous workforce continues to shrink, according to The Guardian.
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