From loitering munitions and multisensor platforms to large autogyro cargo drones -- this year's Singapore Airshow hosted an array of unmanned aerial vehicles and tech that could benefit Japan at a time when the Self-Defense Forces are planning to replace their aging aircraft and helicopters with UAVs. The airshow, which wrapped up earlier this week, highlighted the growing international demand for unmanned systems as they become increasingly indispensable for modern militaries, particularly against the backdrop of the war in Ukraine, where they have played a significant role on the battlefield. Japan's defense establishment is well aware of how drones are transforming warfare, which is why Tokyo is envisaging a growing role for unmanned systems in the SDF, especially in the air and maritime domains, as the country faces an increasingly tense regional security environment.

Japan is planning to accept a greater number of caregivers from three Southeast Asian countries having bilateral free trade agreements with Tokyo as part of efforts to address a labor shortage in the country, sources familiar with the matter said Sunday. By easing some restrictions on the number of caregivers from Indonesia, the Philippines and Vietnam, the government will allow more caregivers with high Japanese language skills to work in Japan from next April, the sources said. Under the current terms with the three countries, Japan will accept up to 300 caregivers from each country a year. The government aims to treat such foreign workers with high language proficiency separately from the current quota of 300. The number of people in the three countries who want to work as caregivers in Japan has recently been increasing.

NASA's tough-looking Robonaut 2 is slated to ride the Space Shuttle Discovery into orbit this month, and now Japan says it wants to shoot its own humanoid robot to the International Space Station too. Japan's space agency JAXA says it may put a humanoid on the ISS in 2013 so it can watch over crew members while they sleep and monitor their health and stress levels. Engineers at the University of Tokyo and staff at advertising giant Dentsu apparently are working on the space droid. It would be intended for communication--sending pics to Earth via Twitter and boosting public interest in the ISS. NASA, on the other hand, wants humanoid robots to perform tasks on space walks in the future. "We are thinking in terms of a very human-like robot that would have facial expressions and be able to converse with the astronauts," JAXA's Satoshi Sano was quoted as saying by the Associated Press.