Tokyo robot cafe offers new work opportunity for disabled

TOKYO: At a Tokyo cafe, Michio Imai greets a customer, but not in person. He’s hundreds of kilometres away, operating a robot waiter as part of an experiment in inclusive employment.

Dawn cafe’s robots are intended to be more than a gimmick, offering job opportunities to people who find it hard to work outside the home.

“Hello. How are you?” a sleek white robot shaped like a baby penguin calls from a counter near the entrance, turning its face to customers and waving its flippers.

Imai is behind the controls at his home in Hiroshima, 800 kilometres away, one of around 50 employees with physical and mental disabilities who work as Dawn’s “pilots”, operating robot staff.

The cafe opened in central…