日本：機器人將填補350萬職位空缺

Robots could fill the jobs of 3.5 million people in Japan by 2025, a thinktank says, helping to avert worker shortages as the country's population shrinks.

Japan faces a 16 percent slide in the size of its workforce by 2030 while the number of elderly will mushroom, the government estimates, raising worries about who will do the work in a country unused to, and unwilling to contemplate large-scale immigration.

The thinktank, the Machine Industry Memorial Foundation, says robots could help fill the gaps, ranging from microsized capsules that detect lesions to high-tech vacuum cleaners.

Rather than each robot replacing one person, the foundation said in a report that robots could make time for people to focus on more important things.

Japan could save 2.1 trillion yen (10.4 billion pounds) of elderly insurance payments in 2025 by using robots that monitor the health of older people, so they don't have to rely on human nursing care, the foundation said in its report.

Caregivers would save more than an hour a day if robots helped look after children, older people and did some housework, it added. Robotic duties could include reading books out loud or helping bathe the elderly.

"Seniors are pushing back their retirement until they are 65 years old, day care centres are being built so that more women can work during the day, and there is a move to increase the quota of foreign labourers. But none of these can beat the shrinking workforce," said Takao Kobayashi, who worked on the study.

"Robots are important because they could help in some ways to alleviate such shortage of the labour force."

The current fertility rate is 1.3 babies per woman, far below the level needed to maintain the population, while the government estimates that 40 percent of the population will be over 65 by 2055, raising concerns about who will look after the greying population.

Kobayashi said changes were still needed for robots to make a big impact on the workforce.

"There's the expensive price tag, the functions of the robots still need to improve, and then there are the mindsets of people," he said.

"People need to have the will to use the robots."

日本一智囊機構指出，到2025年，機器人將填補日本350萬個勞動力空缺，這將有利於緩解該國因人口減少而造成的勞動力不足問題。

據日本政府估計，隨着老齡人口的迅速增加，到2030年，日本的勞動力將減少16%。對於一個不習慣也不願意大規模引入外來勞動力的國家來說，這種狀況讓人擔憂誰能來填補這個勞動力空缺。

智囊機構“機器工業紀念基金會”說，機器人可以來幫忙——小到可探測損傷的微型膠囊，大至高科技真空吸塵器。

該機構在一份報告中稱，讓機器人蔘與人類勞動並不是用一個機器人代替一個人，而是讓機器人爲人們騰出時間去做更重要的事。

該機構在報告中說，如用機器人代替護理人員來看護老人，那麼到2025年可爲日本政府節約2.1萬億日元（104億英鎊）的養老保險費用。

如果讓機器人幫助照顧老人小孩以及做一些簡單家務，那麼每天可爲人節省一個多小時的時間。機器人還能爲人們朗讀書本和幫助老人洗澡。

研究人員高尾小林說：“老年人的退休年齡推遲到了65歲，日託中心正在建立，儘管這讓女性可以出去工作，而且政府也開始實行增加外來勞動力的舉措，但這些都無法從根本上解決勞動力不斷減少的問題。”

“機器人的重要性就在於，它們在某種程度上可以幫助緩解勞動力短缺的問題。”

日本目前的生育率爲平均每個婦女生育1.3個孩子，遠遠不足以維持人口增長。此外，據政府估計，到2055年，日本40%的人口將超過65歲，這種狀況讓人擔憂誰來照顧這些老齡人口。

小林說，如果要讓機器人發揮更大的作用，還需對它們進行改造。

他說：“機器人價格昂貴，功能仍需改善，同時還有人們的觀念，必須要讓人們願意使用機器人。”