A conversation about robots
Last week my friend Akira, a Japanese university professor came to visit me. We discussed many things about education and technology, and he told me about the robotic revolution in Japan. He said: “For the past twenty years, Japanese manufacturing was on the declining because of competitions from others such as S. Korea and China. Currently, Japan is facing a decreasing in a population with many older workers but fewer young workers. Factories cannot find enough workers to work on the factory assembly lines. Without proper action, it will threaten the industrial base of large companies such as Sony, Panasonic, Mitsubishi, and Hitachi. A few years ago, a “temporary solution” was implemented to “import” workers from oversea but the real solution was not about finding more workers.”
I am surprised: “If the solution is only temporary, what is the real solution for the lack of workers?
He answered: “The real solution is “automation” and use robots to do the work instead of people. Of course, it will take the time to change the factory assembly lines and modernize all equipment in the factories. The temporary solution is “import” workers for few years until we complete all the automation process and build more robots. Today Japan's robotics sector is growing to a $20 billion business and will continue growing. We want to create a mass-production system run by robots so we can get back into the global market. The strategy in automation is carefully planned in detail and communicate to our people, and they are welcoming this change.”
I asked: “What will happen to these imported workers?
He said: “They are contracted workers. After the contract ends, they must leave. It reflects Japan's aversion to immigration as we hope that robots can keep our factories competitive with other rivals like China, Malaysia in lower labor costs. For many countries, including the U.S. and other western countries, robots are seen as a threat to workers in manufacturing, but we understand the needs of technology to keep our economy running. Our government has urged companies to distribute robots into every part of our society. Soon you will see robots everywhere, from manufacturing, healthcare to hotels, restaurants, etc. Japanese love robots, from young children to the elderly, we love automation because we understand the needs.”
I asked: “How is the robotics industry doing so far?”
He explained: “Today, Japan is probably number one in making robots. Instead of building things like TV, VCR, electronic gadgets that other countries can do, we switch to something more sophisticated which require higher education levels. Something other countries like China, S. Korea, Malaysia cannot compete shortly. Many years ago, we dominated the electronics market, but now we will control the robots market. Our manufacturing is producing all types of robots, from heavy manufacturing robots to children toys. We plan to double the market for manufacturing robots and increasing the service robots market at least 20 times in the next five years. So far, the strategy to develop and deploy robots already saved over 10 million Japanese jobs and continue to keep our economy running well through 2030. Robots and automation could shave 25% off factory labor costs in Japan.”
I asked: “But other countries are building robots too. Last years I saw several robotics factories in China.”
He explained: “Currently the best countries that have strong robotics technology are Germany and the U.S., but they are limited mostly to manufacturing robots. China is still trying to catch up, but they do not have the technology and skills yet. Japan is making all types of robots, large and small. We export our Robots to China and today China is the biggest buying of our robots, they want to use robots to replace their labor workers so they can stay competitive. However, we are few steps ahead of them. We use robots because we do not have enough workers but China needs robots because it wants to stay competitive. But a country with a large population of labor workers will not accept full automation. The question is “What would they do with hundreds of million unemployed people with no hope and no future?”
Sources
- Blogs of Prof. John Vu, Carnegie Mellon University
