Not that many robots that are traditionally used in the manufacturing industry are applied in the service industry,” Takada explains. (Credit: Bobbie van der List) “Originally this robot was developed for the car manufacturing industry, produced by a company called Yasukawa Denki. But not in Henn-na instead, a mechanical arm helps me store my bags. In most hotels, there is a special room to store luggage before officially checking in. I have a little time to kill, since I arrived two hours before check-in time. And the hospitality sector in Japan may need to get creative if this recent trend continues. It was the first time in 45 years the number of visitors outpaced the number of Japanese citizens going abroad. “So we accepted the challenge by opening a hotel where the core philosophy is to not be dependent on human staff by utilizing robots.” Tourism to Japan has surged: 20 million visitors in 2015, compared to 10 million in 2014. If we don’t come up with solutions, the hotel sector will be at risk,” Takada says. “Japanese society is rapidly aging… a declining workforce is especially affecting the hospitality industry, which mainly consists of young people. He explains that the hotel was built in 2015 in response to changing demographics in Japan. Flesh-and-blood human Kotaro Takada, corporate officer at Huis Ten Bosch, greets me in the lobby.
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