Getting products from one place to another with as little human contact as possible is becoming an imperative for businesses as retailers, warehouses and transport providers adapt to the coronavirus pandemic, seeking to minimize the risk of infections to their employees and customers. Tsubakimoto Chain Co. is seeing more demand for its sorting and conveyor systems as companies seek ways to move things around, while startup Hacobu sees an opportunity to boost use of its online platform for trucks to exchange information as they load and unload goods at warehouses, a process that's still mostly done on paper. The need for automation is especially acute in Japan, where a labor shortage was already putting pressure on companies to find ways to run their businesses with less people. Now, that transition is being spurred on by the pandemic, which has boosted online buying and raised concerns among shoppers about being infected by items delivered to their doors. All told, the market for next-generation logistics systems in Japan is set to more than double to ¥651 billion ($6 billion) through 2025 from 2018, according to Fuji Keizai Co., a Tokyo-based research firm.

At a warehouse in Tokyo's Ariake district once mainly staffed by people, robots are now doing the work of inspecting and sorting the clothing housed there by Japanese retailer Uniqlo. The company recently remodeled the existing warehouse with an automated system created in partnership with Daifuku, a provider of material handling systems. Now that the system is running, the company revealed during a walkthrough of the new facility, Uniqlo has been able to cut staff at the warehouse by 90%. The warehouse can now also operate 24 hours a day. The robotic system is designed to transfer products delivered to the warehouse by truck, read electronic tags attached to the products and confirm their stock numbers and other information. When shipping, the system wraps products placed on a conveyor belt in cardboard and attaches labels to them.

Masaki Hojo, who built Daifuku Co. into the world's largest maker of machines for handling chip materials, is once again challenging market expectations even as he prepares to make his exit from the Japanese company. Daifuku is considering raising its earnings guidance for the medium term, according to Hojo, 69, who plans to step down as president at the end of next month. The need for more semiconductors in cars and robots, and consumers' growing appetite for e-commerce and big data can only mean more demand for Daifuku's machinery, he says, while China looms as a possible new market for expansion. Few outside of the chip industry will have heard of Daifuku, whose gear is found in cutting-edge Intel Corp. plants and helps Amazon.com The Osaka-based company also supplies baggage-handling systems for the world's biggest airports from Chicago's O'Hare to Beijing and London.