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Japanese Humanoid Robot Companies
Japanese humanoid robots from Kawasaki, Kawada, AIST, Toyota and KyoHA, checked against the HardwareMap index, which lists no Japanese humanoid startup.
by the HardwareMap editors3 min read
From the HardwareMap index, REV 26.09, refreshed 4 Oct 2026
Contents
Japanese humanoid robots come mostly from industrial groups and national labs, not startups: the HardwareMap index, at REV 26.09, lists no humanoid maker headquartered in Japan, and only 1 Japanese company in any category. This page covers the Japanese programs that exist, labeled as outside the index, and compares them with the 9 humanoid makers the index does list. It sits under humanoid robot companies.
The table above is the comparison set. Every row is in the United States, China, Germany or Canada. The one Japanese entry in the index, EdgeCortix (Tokyo), designs low-power AI accelerators; its SAKURA-II chip targets edge inference, the kind of compute a robot carries, but it does not build robots.
Why the index lists no Japanese humanoid robots
The index lists a company when it is a startup with a product, a public source and an operating team. Japan's humanoid work fails the first test, not the others. The serious programs sit inside Kawasaki Heavy Industries, Toyota, Honda and the National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology (AIST). Those are divisions and labs. Tesla's Optimus is left out for the same reason.
That leaves a gap worth stating plainly: there is no Japanese counterpart yet to Figure AI, Unitree Robotics or Agility Robotics, a funded company whose only business is a humanoid. The section below is the honest substitute.
Japanese humanoid robot programs, outside the index
These are not index entries. They are listed so a reader searching for Japanese humanoids gets the real names, each with a primary source.
Kawasaki Heavy Industries, Kaleido. A bipedal humanoid Kawasaki has developed across several generations, aimed at heavy labor in care facilities and disaster work in protective gear. Kawasaki describes it as built in cooperation with universities and startups (Kawasaki, Feb 2023). Status: development platform, no public price.
Kawada Robotics, NEXTAGE and the HRP series. Kawada sells NEXTAGE, an upper-body humanoid with two arms and head-mounted cameras built for work beside people on assembly lines (Kawada Robotics). It is the closest thing Japan has to a commercial humanoid product. Kawada also built hardware for AIST's HRP research robots.
AIST, HRP-5P. A 182 cm, 101 kg research humanoid with 37 degrees of freedom, shown in November 2018 hanging plasterboard and driving screws, framed as a response to construction labor shortages (AIST, 16 Nov 2018).
Toyota, T-HR3. A 1.5 m, 75 kg humanoid unveiled in November 2017 with 32 torque-controlled degrees of freedom, driven by a remote operator in a master control system (Toyota, 21 Nov 2017). It is a teleoperation platform, not a product.
Honda, after ASIMO. Honda retired ASIMO in 2022 and now says it builds several robots with distinct functions, including an avatar robot for remote presence (Honda Robotics).
New Japanese humanoid robot efforts since 2025
Two newer efforts are closer to the startup model.
donut robotics (Tokyo) is a startup founded in 2014 that is developing cinnamon 1, a humanoid aimed at simple factory tasks, and showed a smaller cinnamon mini at SusHi Tech Tokyo in April 2026 (Tokyo Metropolitan Government, 2026). The index has not listed it: we have not found a disclosed funding round or a paying deployment to record.
The Kyoto Humanoid Association (KyoHA) was established in August 2025 to build a domestic hardware base for humanoids, with Waseda University among its founders (Waseda University, Oct 2025). In May 2026 it showed SEIMEI, a verification humanoid using Japanese components from members including Murata Manufacturing, Renesas and Mabuchi Motor, assembled about four months after design began (AISmiley, May 2026). It is a consortium, not a company, so it is not an index entry.
How Japan compares with China and the US
Japan has the parts. Its suppliers make reducers, servo motors, sensors and chips that humanoids everywhere depend on. What it lacks is the funded integrator. China pairs a dense supply chain with local procurement and listed humanoid makers; see Chinese humanoid robots. The United States pairs venture capital with factory and warehouse pilots. For where the money is going, see the humanoid robot market note, and for the newest launches, the humanoid robots changelog.
When a Japanese humanoid startup discloses a round or names a paying customer, it goes into the index and onto this page at the next REV.
Frequently asked questions
Which companies make Japanese humanoid robots?
The established names are Kawasaki Heavy Industries with Kaleido, Kawada Robotics with the NEXTAGE dual-arm robot and the HRP series built with AIST, and Toyota with the teleoperated T-HR3. Newer efforts include donut robotics in Tokyo and the Kyoto Humanoid Association, a group of companies and universities building a domestically sourced humanoid. None is a venture-backed startup in the HardwareMap index yet.
Is Honda still making ASIMO?
No. Honda ended ASIMO development and retired the robot in 2022. Honda says it now builds several robots with distinct functions instead of one general humanoid, including an avatar robot for remote presence and the UNI-ONE seated mobility device. ASIMO's walking and balance research fed into those programs and into Honda's other products.
Why are there so few Japanese humanoid robot startups?
Japan's humanoid work has mostly lived inside large industrial groups and national labs, such as Kawasaki, Toyota and AIST, rather than in venture-backed companies. Venture rounds for hardware are smaller in Japan than in the United States or China. The Kyoto Humanoid Association was set up in 2025 partly to fix the missing domestic supply chain for humanoid parts.
Can I buy a Japanese humanoid robot?
Kawada Robotics sells NEXTAGE, an upper-body humanoid with two arms and head cameras, to factories through its distributors. Kawasaki's Kaleido, Toyota's T-HR3 and AIST's HRP-5P are research platforms, not products with a public price. For humanoids that are sold today at listed prices, most of which come from China, see our note on humanoid robots for sale.
HardwareMap lists every humanoid maker that meets the bar, from any country. Open the company datasheets in the table above for hub, stage, raise and investors.
The index
All 219 startups, filterable by category, hub, stage and funding.