Japan Automated Material Handling Equipment Industry to Grow at a CAGR 9.8% from 2023 to 2028

The report “Japan Automated Material Handling Equipment Market by Product (Robots, ASRS, Conveyors And Sortation Systems, Cranes, WMS, AGV), System Type (Unit Load, Bulk Load), Industry (Automotive, E-Commerce, Food & Beverage) and Region – Global Forecast to 2028“ , published by MarketsandMarkets, Japan Automated Material Handling Equipment Industry to Grow at a CAGR 9.8% from 2023 to 2028

Japan to witness substantial demand for automated material handling equipment

Automated Material Handling (AMH) uses technologically advanced material handling systems for storing, moving, controlling, and retrieving various products in various industries. Automated material handling systems include conveyors and sortation systems, automatic storage and retrieval systems (ASRS), robots, automated guided vehicles (AGVs), and WMS. Automated material handling equipment enhances material handling processes’ accuracy, efficiency, and safety. In addition, it helps to reduce labor costs and increase the throughput. As reported by MarketsandMarkets, the global automated material handling equipment market may grow at a CAGR of 9.4% during 2022−2027.

The material handling market in the Asia Pacific region is expected to exhibit significant growth in the upcoming years. As Asia Pacific is the fastest developing region with a large population, it is one of the key driving factors in the demand for goods and services. This will increase this region’s manufacturing, logistics, and e-commerce activities, driving the need for efficient and automated material handling equipment.

Japan is considered to be the major economy in the Asia Pacific region. The country is working on the installation of automated material-handling equipment in several manufacturing facilities. For instance, in June 2022, Mitsubishi announced the launch of an automated valet parking system’s demonstration testing at a commercial facility near Tokyo. This system offered by the company employs automated guided vehicle (AGV) robots in their facility. Moreover, in March 2022, Mitsubishi Electric Corporation announced that it had acquired 42,000 square meters of land in Owariasahi City, Japan, to establish a new production plant for factory automation (FA) products. In addition, the new factory will use several technologies, such as 5G communication and automatic guided vehicles (AGVs), as they can perform manufacturing tasks efficiently. Developments like these will help drive the country’s material handling market.

In Japan, one of the significant reasons for the labor shortage is the declining birth rate and aging population. This creates an issue of lack of available workers in the warehousing and logistics industry. Thus, there is a growing need to automate warehousing operations to reduce dependency on manual labor or workers. For instance, in October 2022, Dexterity, Inc. partnered with Sumitomo, a Japan-based global trading and business investment company, to bring more robots to warehouses in Japan. Further, the companies plan to deploy 1,500 intelligent material handling robots in Japan by 2026. Deployment like this shows the growing need for robots in Japanese warehouses.

Further, robots and AGVs can optimize available space utilization by efficiently storing and retrieving goods, thereby reducing the need for large aisles or unnecessary movements. Hence, the country has a considerable opportunity for automated material handling as warehousing is increasing.