[Voiceover]

More and more factories in Japan are using Chinese-made warehouse robots to boost logistics as companies face a lack in workers.

At a sprawling e-commerce warehouse in Tokyo, robots are used to retrieve and move products. Human parcel workers place items into the robot's basket based on information on the robots' display screen. The robots deliver the items to designated areas where they're double checked and packed by humans.
The warehouse's manager said one worker can sort about 100 parcels per hour with the help of a robot, roughly 10 times the amount without one.

[Soundbite]

Yoshihiko Nakamura, person in charge, logistics warehouse:

"Costs involved in sorting and delivery have been reduced by 40 percent to 50 percent. In terms of staff numbers, we used to need 80 to 100 staff members in pure-manual sorting and delivery, while now we only need 10 to 20. The cost savings is enough to pay for the robots."

[Voiceover]

Starting this month, Japan is limiting overtime for truck drivers to 960 hours per year, raising concerns of possible logistics disruptions.

Faced with these concerns and a shrinking labor force, many companies are choosing to incorporate robots into their production facilities.

According to Japanese media, by 2030, the country's autonomous guided robot market is expected to reach 770 million U.S. dollars.

[Restrictions: No access Chinese mainland]