[J-AGRI 2026 ②] Heat, labor shortages, wildlife damage… Japan’s agricultural “triple burden” tackled with technology

Editor’s note: The Korea Agricultural Technology Newspaper is examining Japan’s largest comprehensive agricultural exhibition, “J-AGRI 2026 (Agriculture WEEK),” in a three-part series based on on-site reporting. Part 1 looked at Korean companies seeking to enter the Japanese market, and in this second installment, we examine the solutions offered by local companies for Japanese agriculture, which is suffering from extreme heat, labor shortages, and wildlife damage.

In Japan’s open-field vegetable farms in midsummer, when intense heat strikes, both weeding and pest control come to a halt. The reason is the risk of heatstroke. The number of people available to work declines every year, and the remaining farmers are aging, while deer, wild boars, and birds target crops raised with great effort. According to Japan’s Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries, crop damage caused by wild birds and animals in fiscal 2024 reached 18.8 billion yen (about 158.8 billion won based on the exchange rate on October 13). High temperatures, labor shortages, and wildlife damage are simultaneously putting pressure on agricultural sites in Japan.

At “J-AGRI Tokyo 2026 (formerly Agriculture WEEK),” held from the 7th to the 9th at Makuhari Messe in Chiba Prefecture, Japan, Japanese technologies aimed at these three problems filled the exhibition hall. The five Japanese companies covered on site by this newspaper presented their respective solutions: robots that weed, spray chemicals, and carry loads in place of people; paper mulch that lowers soil temperature; and a four-legged walking robot that patrols farms.
 

Robots that do not rest even in extreme heat… replacing weeding, spraying, and transport

Solutions to labor shortages focused on robots. Nagano Prefecture startup SYN-ROBOTICS unveiled “Synrobo,” an unmanned weeding robot for open-field vegetables. The company initially aimed to develop a multipurpose robot that could handle everything from sowing to harvesting, but when agricultural experts unanimously said, “Existing systems are sufficient for sowing and harvesting, but weeding is too difficult,” it shifted direction to a dedicated weeding robot.

Synrobo makes one round trip along a furrow, dividing detection and removal between the two passes. On the outbound pass, it photographs the field with a camera, and AI distinguishes crops from weeds and stores the data together with satellite navigation (GNSS) coordinates; on the return pass, it locates those positions and pulls out the weeds with a five-axis robotic arm. It can even handle weeds growing at the base of plants and through holes in mulch. Using both a gasoline generator and batteries, it can operate almost all day if refueled twice, in the morning and evening, and its daily working area is about 1,000 pyeong (about 3,300㎡).

“It is far more efficient when you take into account periods in summer when people cannot work because of heatstroke and other risks,” said Yayoi Sugiura, who is in charge of strategy promotion at SYN-ROBOTICS. “Robots can work whether it is hot, raining, or cold.” The price is 5 million yen per unit, and a cloud service (10,000 yen per month) is required, but SYN-ROBOTICS expects that with subsidies, the actual purchase price will fall by half and the investment can be recovered in about three years. The company also plans to add a forecasting function that detects pests and diseases in advance using accumulated video data and AI. All 20 units scheduled for production in 2027 have already been contracted, and on the first day of the exhibition alone, 11 corporations expressed intent to purchase units for 2028.

In greenhouses, the remotely operated spraying robot “Unemaki” from Ibaraki Prefecture-based FieldWorks is reducing the burden of pest control. Since its launch in 2025, 80 units have been delivered nationwide in just one year. According to the company, what farmers welcome most is the reduction in chemical exposure. “In the past, people dragged hoses around and sprayed by hand, which meant they got covered in chemicals and it was bad for their health,” said Yusuke Kazama, public relations officer in the sales department. “Many say they have been freed from that kind of work.” Once users get used to it, they can operate the robot by remote control from outside the greenhouse while watching the camera feed.

It is designed to use replaceable commercially available 18V batteries for power tools, and prices range from 902,000 yen to 1,485,000 yen (including tax). The company explained that it is price-competitive compared with competing products priced in the 2 million to 3 million yen range. About 30 rentals nationwide have also been made at around 80,000 yen per month. “When crops are small, farmers can spray by hand and rent the robot only during periods when the plants have grown tall and spraying becomes difficult,” Kazama said. “Drones handle open fields, while Unemaki handles the inside of greenhouses.” In Japan, agricultural spraying drones require flight permission and approval from the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism, but Unemaki, which runs on the ground, can be used without such procedures. FieldWorks is also currently developing autonomous driving functions as part of a Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries research project.

A representative example of transport in orchards is “Adam,” a transport robot from Kisui, a startup originating from Tohoku University. It can carry up to 300kg, recognizes and follows workers with an AI stereo camera, and can also be controlled by remote. Independent suspension on all four wheels keeps the cargo bed almost steady even in uneven apple and pear orchards. “In the past, people loaded goods onto carts and carried them themselves, but now the robot follows the worker and transports items together,” explained Ryosuke Maehata, sales manager at Kisui. Sales began last year, and 14 units, including those for research use, have been deployed, of which three were delivered to farms. The suggested retail price is about 3.2 million yen before consumption tax, and subsidies of 30 to 50% may be available depending on the local government.
 

Cooling the ground with paper instead of vinyl… cabbage harvests 3.6 times higher

The heat countermeasure that drew the most attention was “Sustaina Mulch,” a paper mulch from Oji F-Tex, an affiliate of paper company Oji Holdings. Black vinyl mulch prevents weeds and moisture evaporation, but when exposed to sunlight, it also raises the temperature of the soil. Sustaina Mulch prevents soil temperature from rising based on the principle of latent heat of vaporization, as the paper absorbs moisture in the soil and then evaporates it, taking heat away.

The sheet surface temperature measured by the company in a test field was 34 degrees Celsius for paper mulch and 45 degrees Celsius for polyethylene mulch. The temperature difference in the soil where crop roots are located is smaller than this. In the company’s own survey, summer soil temperature was up to 5 degrees lower than with black vinyl. “Even when it does not rain, the effect appears with just the moisture in the soil, so it is generally 2 to 3 degrees lower than existing poly products,” explained Masayuki Ushio, manager in the sales division of Oji F-Tex. “The hotter and more humid the day, the greater the temperature difference becomes.”

The difference in yields was also significant. According to company demonstrations, compared with poly mulch, cabbage harvests were 3.6 times higher and potato harvests about three times higher, while the harvest period for greenhouse-grown sunny lettuce was moved up by one month, from October to September. Demonstrations were conducted at 524 locations nationwide, from Hokkaido to Okinawa. Asked whether paper would be vulnerable to rain, Manager Ushio replied, “Even in a test field that was laid on June 6 and photographed on August 29, there was some damage here and there, but overall it maintained its shape.” However, because it lowers soil temperature even in spring and winter, it is not suitable for crops grown in low-temperature seasons.

It also helps reduce labor. After harvest, there is no need to collect the sheet; it can simply be plowed into the soil, where it decomposes. “Sheets buried in the ground disappear without a trace after two months,” Manager Ushio emphasized. “There is no need for retrieval work or industrial waste disposal.” Sales began in April this year, and orders are now coming in every month from about 30 farms nationwide. The price is higher than ordinary vinyl and similar to biodegradable mulch. It has not yet gone on sale in Korea, where trials are being conducted on highland napa cabbage in Hoengseong, Gangwon Province.
 

A “robot dog” that protects fields… major corporations also respond to wildlife damage

Major corporations have also entered the field of responding to wildlife damage. Mitsubishi Electric showcased a “robot dog” that walks on four legs. “We made the legs extremely sturdy, so it can traverse not only flat roads but also hills and bumpy roads without problems,” explained Hirara Suemori of Mitsubishi Electric’s Applied Development Department 4. The design takes into account rural environments with many slopes and embankments. A 15- to 20-minute charge allows it to move for about three hours, and its top speed is slightly faster than a person’s walking pace.

It is still in the research and development stage, and demonstrations have not yet been conducted on animals other than birds. The company aims to commercialize it in two to three years and plans to develop it to the point where the robot can patrol around farms and detect signs such as animal footprints or droppings. The expected price is around 1 million yen. “We do not yet know whether it will lead to a business,” Suemori said, “but we have clearly confirmed that there is demand for this type of robot at agricultural sites.”

The companies encountered at this exhibition commonly targeted “work that is difficult for people to endure.” These are the tasks that aging farmers are the first to give up, such as weeding in extreme heat, pest control that leaves them covered in chemicals, and transporting heavy harvests. However, because prices range from 900,000 to 5 million yen per unit, adoption depends heavily on subsidies from the national and local governments. According to Manager Ushio, farmers’ choices are cautious enough that even a farm that recently introduced paper mulch made its purchase decision only after testing it for three years.

Extreme heat and labor issues are challenges faced equally by Korean agriculture. As with paper mulch, which is already being tested on highland napa cabbage in Hoengseong, the key question is how well technologies being verified in the field in Japan will fit Korean farms.