Until the recent surge of infections in Tokyo, Japan had seemed to have its coronavirus game down. Both infections and deaths have remained at low levels for months. But as businesses open back up, many realize it can’t be business as usual. One shop, in particular, has gone to great lengths to reduce contact between customers and staff.
Contactless Payments and Robot Staff: The New Post-Corona Reality?
Before coronavirus, Japan was struggling with adapting some technologies that were already taking off in other parts of the world. Chief among these was cashless payment tech. After a slow start, however, cashless began to take off in 2019, thanks to the advent of services such as PayPay. (And no thanks to 7&i Holdings, the corporate parent of 7-11 Japan, which botched its own cashless app rollout.)
After coronavirus, cashless in Japan may be poised to take off in a big way. As usual, PayPay is leading the charge: since December 2019, it’s seen the number of payments using its service double.
Even before coronavirus, many restaurants were already moving towards contactless ordering. It’s not an uncommon sight to walk into an izakaya (pub) in a major city and find that the menu is a tablet with a built-in ordering system. Other restaurants leverage an ever cheaper approach: a QR code that lets users order from their smartphones.
But cashless payments are only one part of the equation. There’s still the tricky problem of maintaining social distance in confined quarters – not only between customers, but also between customers and staff. This is especially true when serving food.
And that’s where the robots come in.
Robotic Experiments (And Failures)
Experiments in robotic service are nothing new in Japan. Faced with a decreasing and aging population, Japan has pursued robotics as one avenue for offsetting its worker shortage.
For years, the Henn na Hotel (“Strange Hotel”) chain has made a name for itself with robot servants – including dinosaur robots – who have greeted customers at hotels with minimal staff. The country has also experimented with human augmentation: last year, amidst a rush of tourist traffic, Japan Air Lines unveiled a power suit designed to help people with limited physical strength act as baggage handlers.
Mind you, it hasn’t all been smooth sailing. Those dinosaur hotel clerks? They and a cadre of other robots in the Henna Hotel chain were decommissioned because they created more work for humans. And given the COVID-19 pandemic and the postponement of the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, Japan’s tourist numbers are…not what they used to be.
But that hasn’t stopped people from trying – especially at Japan’s beleaguered izakayas. During the COVID-19-induced state of emergency, some izakaya attempted to go virtual to offset their losses. While many held on, a good number failed. Some industry experts expect around 30% of izakaya will ultimately go out of business.
“Peanut”
So it’s no surprise that those chains with the means to do so are looking to robotic technology. Decreasing human contact can help reassure customers that it’s safe to start drinking out again. Nikkei XTrend notes that one Izakaya in Ikebukuro run by the Yoronotaki Group, experimented with a completely staff-free izakaya.
And now, with the state of emergency lifted, other places are following suit. In Fukuoka, the izakaya Teigakuya has deployed “Peanut” the serving robot. Cooking staff can place food and drinks on Peanut and then designate the table number for delivery. Peanut scans codes installed in the ceiling to find the correct table, where customers can then take their food.
Of course, there’s a potential dark side here: a decrease in employment. This, at a time when hard-hit Japanese households are struggling to make ends meet. However, as I discussed, robotic tech can be…temperamental. I’d conjecture this is still very much in the experimental phase. It’ll be a while before people have grounds to complain about the robots taking their jobs.
One thing’s for sure, though. In a COVID-19 world, going to restaurants and bars – not just in Japan, but everywhere – will never be the same.
