As part of our commitment to exposing young people to future-facing industries and entrepreneurial thinking, we were delighted to welcome guest speaker YuCheng Cheng, co-founder of agritech startup Kisui TECH, to this year’s RSJ Summer Camp.
Spun out of Tohoku University, Kisui is pioneering smart agricultural robotics designed to address two of Japan’s most pressing rural challenges: labour shortages and an aging farming population.
In Japan, the average age of a farmer is now over 67, and fewer young people are entering the agricultural workforce. Many rural communities are struggling to maintain productivity, especially in regions where the terrain makes large-scale mechanisation difficult. With fewer hands to do the work – and more land left untended – there is growing urgency for sustainable, scalable solutions that can support smaller teams without compromising output.
YuCheng introduced our pupils to Adam and Mini Adam: the company’s latest autonomous AI robots, designed to support small and medium-sized farms with physically demanding tasks like transporting heavy loads, mowing, and pesticide spraying. Despite their compact size, both robots are powerful enough to carry loaded fruit containers and are equipped with a smart camera system that enables them to either follow a person or travel independently between set locations.
This removes the need for hard-to-recruit manual labour in rural communities, and frees young workers up to take on more highly-skilled, highly-paid jobs.
It was a fascinating look at how robotics, AI, and ingenuity can come together to support sustainable farming – and a powerful reminder that innovation is not only limited to big cities or tech giants.
Addressing and understanding complex and sometimes uncomfortable issues – like Japan’s “demographic timebomb” – are one of the many ways we encourage our pupils and campers to strengthen their critical thinking muscles (an essential skill in the modern workforce).
This is why we embrace opportunities like these to hear from innovators and visionaries who are committed to solving some of the world’s most complex problems.
Thank you to YuCheng Cheng for your inspiring and thought-provoking speech. And we look forward to welcoming you to RSJ again in the future.
