Japan Unveils Emotion-Recognizing Humanoid Robots Amid Labor Shortage

Japan's labor shortage is driving innovation in humanoid service robots that can hear and respond to emotions. KDDI Corporation, Japan's second-largest mobile carrier, has unveiled a new robot at Google Cloud Next Tokyo with Google's end-to-end audio model, Gemini 3.1 Flash Live Preview. This model preserves emotional nuance in real-time, unlike previous robots that could only recognize words.

The company AVITA Inc., founded by roboticist Hiroshi Ishiguro, has developed the robot's hardware and software in partnership with KDDI. The humanoid uses silicone skin, pneumatic actuators for naturalistic expression, and camera sensors to detect movement and objects in its surroundings. This system is designed to eliminate latency, allowing the robot to respond quickly to customers' emotions.

Japan's labor shortage is severe, with a Bank of Japan Tankan survey showing an employment conditions diffusion index at -35 across all industries, the most acute reading in three decades. A Teikoku Databank survey found that 50.6% of companies reported full-time staff shortages, with seven industries seeing rates above 60%. KDDI and AVITA aim to deploy their humanoid robots in retail, healthcare and welfare, entertainment, and cultural and arts venues.