Why is Japan "out of breath" in the humanoid robot race with China?

(Dan Tri) - Japan was once a pioneer in developing humanoid robots, but currently, this country is far behind China.

More than 50 years ago, in 1973, researchers at Waseda University (Japan) surprised the world by successfully developing a robot capable of moving on two legs and grasping objects.

The humanoid robot called WAseda roBOT-1 was developed by Waseda University experts in 1973 (Photo: RLB).

In 1984, researchers at Waseda University continued to launch a humanoid robot model capable of reading music and playing the piano.

By 2000, when Honda launched a complete humanoid robot model called ASIMO (short for Advanced Step in Innovative Mobility), Japan showed its leading position globally in the race to develop humanoid robots.

However, Honda did not mass produce the ASIMO robot for market sale, because the cost of manufacturing the robot can be up to 2 million USD. Instead, Honda rented ASIMO to participate in events, with a long-term rental price of about 20 million yen/year (equivalent to 190,000 USD at the exchange rate at the time). Short-term rental price is about 2 million yen/day.

The birth of ASIMO marked Japan's superiority in the field of humanoid robots in the 2000s (Video: Honda).

By June 2018, Honda stopped producing ASIMO robots and by 2022, the company officially ended the ASIMO development program to focus on other projects.

Since the appearance of the ASIMO robot until now, Japan has no longer maintained the leading position in the race to develop humanoid robots, but now that position belongs to China.

At the Humanoid Robot Summit that took place in Tokyo last month, Japanese science, technology and media circles gathered to discuss the topic of how Japanese companies can break through in the humanoid robot market, which is dominated by Chinese companies.

However, what attracted the attention of guests attending the conference was the appearance of a humanoid robot developed by Unitree Robotics (China) company, performing complex dance movements. Two Japanese companies also used Unitree's robots to demonstrate the software they developed.

Chinese company Unitree has a variety of humanoid robot models of different sizes (Photo: Unitree).

Tại Hội nghị, các nhà nghiên cứu Nhật Bản đã phải thừa nhận rằng Trung Quốc đang thống trị thị trường robot hình người. Các công ty khởi nghiệp của Trung Quốc như Unitree Robotics đang sản xuất hàng nghìn robot hình người với giá dưới 5.000 USD. Đây là tốc độ sản xuất và mức giá mà không một công ty nào của Nhật Bản, cũng như bất kỳ quốc gia nào khác trên thế giới, có thể theo kịp.

"Previously, Chinese robot companies used to depend on Japanese and foreign suppliers for components such as sensors, joints... But now, those parts are also produced right in China," commented a robotics expert at the University of Tokyo.

Even according to Ming Hsun Lee, head of the industrial research department of market analysis company BofA Global Research (a unit of Bank of America), creating humanoid robots at the present time is almost impossible without components from Chinese companies.

"The cost of robot components in China has decreased so rapidly that other countries cannot compete," commented Ming Hsun Lee.

Not only is it leading in the speed and cost savings of assembling humanoid robots, China is also leading globally in the speed of deploying robots into practice. In 2024, more than 2 million robots were used in factories in China and 300,000 new robots were installed, more than the total number of robots shipped globally in the same year.

According to Ming Hsun Lee, China's leading position in the race to develop humanoid robots is tied to the rise of the electric car industry. China has become the world's largest exporter of electric cars thanks to decades of government investment in a strategy to domestically produce every component, from screws to car batteries.

Currently, many companies that produce electric vehicle components are also supplying components to robot assembly factories. Factories of Chinese electric vehicle companies such as BYD or Xiaomi have also become the first places to deploy humanoid robots for tasks such as transporting objects.

“If a company can make electric car components, then that company can also make humanoid robots,” commented Ming Hsun Lee.

Chinese companies have been able to produce almost all components on humanoid robots (Photo: eDaily).

Michael Tam, brand director of robot company UBTech (headquartered in Shenzhen city), said the competitive advantage of Chinese robot companies is that there are always available component suppliers nearby, many of which are 3D printed at cheap prices, helping to reduce production costs.

"Our company is surrounded by robot component manufacturers, including many companies that specialize in producing electric vehicle components. UBTech can get any robot component needed in just a few hours," Michael Tam shared.

"I can send a part design to a supplier at 9 a.m. and receive the 3D printed part at noon. If a supplier is tight and can't respond, I just call another supplier," Tam added.

Michael Tam revealed that more than 90% of the components in UBTech's robots are provided by Chinese companies. However, UBTech is still having to import central control chips to equip its robots.

China is leading the world in the speed of humanoid robot development (Photo: TT).

RoboSense, a Shenzhen-based manufacturer of LiDAR sensors for self-driving electric vehicles, has also begun moving into the production of humanoid robots from 2024.

According to Duong Tien Sinh, Vice President of Robotics at RoboSense, previously the company had to import components and robot production lines from Japan, however, now companies from China can fully meet these needs.

Not only is the Chinese government having policies to support startups in the field of robotics, but in 2025 alone, investors in this country have also poured more than 5 billion USD into humanoid robot startups. In the first 5 months of this year alone, the amount of investment in the field of humanoid robots in China has reached 6 billion USD.

This move shows that the Chinese government and investors are expecting a "boom" in the humanoid robot market.

According to market research firm MarketsandMarkets, the humanoid robot industry will grow strongly in the next 5 years, reaching a value of 13.8 billion USD, in which more and more humanoid robots integrated with artificial intelligence will be born.