JAPAN SET A GOAL OF 10 MILLION ROBOTS BY 2040
Japan set a target of about 10 million robots by 2040, with the machines headed for health care, food service and factories.
Economy, Trade and Industry Minister Ryosei Akazawa announced the revised AI Robotics Strategy on June 30, 2026, and the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry posted the details the same day. The plan promotes robot use across 18 fields. Food service, food and beverage manufacturing, and health care are newly added.
“The strategy upholds the target of introducing approximately 10 million robots by 2040 and advancing their social implementation across 18 areas, including the newly added food service, food and beverage manufacturing, and health care sectors,” Akazawa said at a press conference.
The ministry said it would move quickly to help companies adopt AI robots. It also plans a core AI robotics hub for research and development, deployment and workforce development.
Who is building the AI
The robot push is tied to a homegrown AI model. Akazawa said Noetra Corp. and the National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology (AIST) had been picked to lead it.
“Noetra Corp. and the National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology (AIST) have just been selected as project leaders,” he said.
Noetra is to develop and provide the multimodal foundation model. AIST is to handle research and development, including work with research institutions in the United States, Canada, France and the United Kingdom.
TechRadar reported that Noetra is a domestically produced model focused on physical AI. It said the company is majority-owned by SoftBank, NEC, Sony Group and Honda, and that Fujitsu and Rakuten were weighing whether to join.
Akazawa pointed to Japan’s stockpile of data from elderly care, disaster response, manufacturing and the Fukushima Daiichi decommissioning. He called the use of that accumulated data Japan’s “winning strategy,” in a race he framed as being about datasets as well as computing power.
The government plans to build data infrastructure for physical AI and robots, then make the resulting technology widely available to Japanese AI developers, businesses and users across industries and regions. TechRadar reported that the plan also aims to spread AI-driven change beyond Tokyo and other major cities.
What came next
Labour was a big part of the pitch. TechRadar said the strategy targets worker shortages tied to Japan’s ageing population and restrictive migration policies. Supporters argue the robots can fill roles that people are not available to take, rather than replacing existing employees, it reported.
TechRadar also reported that South Korea announced a comparable robotics ambition the same week, adding regional competition over homegrown AI.
The Japan Times reported that media accounts put possible government support for the homemade AI model at up to ¥1 trillion. It also reported that Nikkei said Noetra’s participating companies could grow to 44, including firms from automotive, electronics, manufacturing, finance and logistics.
The strategy also includes robots for medical care and work in food and beverage manufacturing, The Register reported.
On October 15, 2026, TechEdt published a follow-up describing the plan to deploy 10 million robots across 18 sectors, including health care, manufacturing and food production. It reported no new government announcement and no change to the target.
