The host of Life Where I’m From, a YouTube channel about life as a foreigner in Japan, visited a pop-up cafe with robot waiters that are remotely controlled by people with disabilities. The workers control the robots from their homes, and can speak with customers using a microphone.
In December of 2018 I visited a temporary robot cafe, but it’s not the type of Japanese robot cafe that comes to mind to most. Rather than a robotic show, this was a cafe where the robot waiters were in fact avatars for people with disabilities, who remotely controlled them from their homes.
This cafe was part of an initiative by The Nippon Foundation, Ory Lab Inc., and ANA Holdings Inc. It allowed people with ALS and severe disabilities to be able to work and interact with the world.