A traveler passing through the lower levels of Tokyo’s Haneda Airport most likely did a double take at some point during the first week of May. A 130-centimeter-tall humanoid robot was sliding bags onto a conveyor belt next to a Japan Airlines aircraft on the tarmac, not far from where ground crews have spent decades pushing cargo and hauling bags in the gray predawn light. It waved after that. Not at any specific person. Simply waved.
In early May, Japan Airlines began a two-year trial with GMO AI & Robotics, using humanoid robots made in China for ground handling duties at one of the busiest airports in Asia. The robots in question, which were manufactured by Hangzhou-based Unitree, the same company that had its H1 model perform Kung Fu at China’s Spring Festival Gala just months earlier, are now performing far less glamorous tasks like handling bags, moving cargo, and working two- to three-hour shifts on the tarmac before needing a recharge. The work is not glamorous. JAL picked it precisely for that reason.
The airline doesn’t seem to be attempting to impress anyone here. Japan’s labor situation is truly dire; the country’s working-age population is expected to decline by almost a third between now and 2060, with the aviation sector feeling the effects earlier than most other industries. There are about 4,000 ground handling employees at JAL, and that number isn’t increasing. In just the first two months of 2026, Japan welcomed over 7 million foreign visitors. Without a change, the math doesn’t work.
This trial’s subtle revelations about Japan’s current situation make it more intriguing than a standard corporate automation announcement. Under Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi, the government has been tightening rather than loosening immigration policy, a politically popular stance that makes it more difficult to close the labor gap through traditional methods.
Instead, robots fill the void. This could be the start of something that appears to be a clear turning point in five or ten years. Alternatively, JAL may quietly end the trial in 2028 with a courteous press release if the robots prove to be too slow, too brittle, or too costly to maintain at scale.
It’s difficult to ignore the tension that permeates the entire experiment as you watch this play out. The hard physical labor that causes back injuries and early retirements in human handlers is being performed by robots, and that is actually beneficial.
The president of JAL Ground Service, Yoshiteru Suzuki, took care to phrase it that way, claiming that the machines would lessen the workload for employees. He did, however, carefully point out that human beings would still be in charge of safety management. That qualifier is more important than it seems. Despite the footage of them shaking hands and waving, these robots are still not trusted to make decisions that keep airplanes safe.
Humanoids lack the dexterity and situational reasoning necessary for challenging real-world tasks, according to analysts for a long time. In short, human oversight is not going away anytime soon, and the programming that powers these machines is still in its infancy, according to Marc Einstein of Counterpoint Research. Physical robotics, according to Barclays, is the next big AI frontier. By 2035, the industry is expected to grow from about $2–3 billion to almost $1.4 trillion. That projection is astounding. Additionally, it’s the type of figure that frequently undergoes substantial revisions prior to its actual arrival.
The robots wave for the time being. The bags are loaded. Passengers with window seats are likely still staring somewhere in the departure hall above the tarmac, attempting to determine whether what they just witnessed was real.
