TOKYO - 7-Eleven Japan on Sept 9 began testing the use of several types of robots to handle tasks such as restocking shelves with drinks and cleaning windows and floors at a store in Tokyo.

Over the next three months, the company will confirm how effective the robots are at saving labour and consider expanding their use to other stores.

The trial is going on at the company-operated Arakawa Nishiogu 7-Chome store in Tokyo’s Arakawa Ward.

A monitor installed beside the self-checkout register enables remote customer service staff to answer inquiries and recommend products.

Multilingual support for foreign customers is also available.

7-Eleven estimates that employees currently spend an average of one to two hours per day transporting beverages from storage to shelves for display.

They expect to see employee workload reduced by about 30 per cent through the use of robots during this experiment.

Mr Hiroki Takei, head of operations at the company, said: “We aim to increase productivity and create an environment where we can challenge ourselves to create new product assortments and services.”

In response to rising labour costs and labour shortages, major convenience store chains are expanding their use of digital technology.

FamilyMart has begun using floor cleaning robots in over 1,000 stores, while Lawson utilises automated cooking robots and other technological solutions.