--- title: "Japanese Schools Installing Telepresence Robots for Students Who Want to Stay Home" description: "Feeling anxious about going to school? A school district in Kumamoto, Japan thinks it might have a solution: wheeled telepresence robots." date: "2023-09-10" modified: "2023-09-10" authors: - name: "Maggie Harrison Dupré" job_title: "Senior Staff Writer" link: "https://futurism.com/authors/mharrison" url: "https://futurism.com/the-byte/japanese-schools-telepresence-robots" categories: - "Robotics" - "Robots and Machines" tags: - "education" - "schools" - "telepresence robots" - "the digest" --- # Japanese Schools Installing Telepresence Robots for Students Who Want to Stay Home ![Feeling anxious about going to school? A school district in Kumamoto, Japan thinks it might have a solution: wheeled telepresence robots.]() *Robots students sitting in classroom raising hands \Image: Donald Iain Smith via Getty Images\* ## Logging In Feeling anxious about going to school? A school district in Kumamoto, Japan thinks it might have a solution. According [to the Japanese newspaper *The Mainichi*](), the southwestern Japanese city will soon allow some students to attend class via telepresence robot in a fascinatingly futuristic — if eccentric — effort to tackle the school district's attendance problem, which the authorities say has drastically worsened over the last few years. "Aside from letting them view the classes, the robots allow students to move freely in space and communicate with others at their own will," one such official told the newspaper. "Hopefully, this can help lower the mental hurdles for truant students." ## Classroomba Per the report, the rolling robots feature a wheeled base, which is attached to a long stem affixed to a tablet. Students operate the robot's movements from home, communicating with others and interfacing with teachers by way of video chat throughout the school day. According to the *Mainichi*, the district says that a total of 2,760 students at elementary and junior high schools within the city "were not attending classes in the 2022 academic year," a figure that has gone up year-over-year since 2018, when the city saw a comparatively low 1,283 absentees across the middle and junior high school-aged children. Those figures are legitimately concerning, and according to the newspaper, robots aren't the district's first effort to curtail the problem. Before this, the district took to offering the more run-of-the-mill solution of online classes. And as the district reportedly tells it, these "virtual classrooms" were working as intended, with students self-reporting that the online system reduced their communication anxiety and even improved their self-esteem. Now, it seems the school board is leveling its digital services up. Per the report, two telepresence robots are set to hit the hallways sometime around November, with district officials arguing that the devices provide absentee students with the ability to socialize and collaborate a bit more with other kids without actually having to physically go to school. It does feel notable that the effort is only taking place at the elementary and junior high levels. But given the apparent effectiveness of the "virtual classroom" system in improving student mental health, we could see the district looking to offer the robots as a socialization bridge of sorts between online and real-life classes, ultimately — hopefully — preparing sch00l-anxious kids to attend high school in person. It's a fascinating experiment — and as the *Mainichi* reports that the school board will do a review of the new system in March, we'll certainly be watching. **More on technology and education:** [*High School Teacher Confesses to Using ChatGPT for Work*]() ## Author At Futurism, I've reported extensively on the rise of AI as a cultural and business force shaping the media industry, and more broadly how those dynamics are changing how we all consume and share information and relate to one another. I'm also fascinated by public health policy and ethics, the role of emerging tech in politics and governance — and the powerful people and forces at those intersections — climate change, and the environment. My investigation on Sports Illustrated's use of AI-generated authors with fictional biographies won a 2024 Mirror Award for "Best Story on Media Coverage of Artificial Intelligence in Journalism and the Media" from Syracuse University's SI Newhouse School, I contributed to Niemen Lab's 2025 Predictions for Journalism series, and I've discussed my work for Futurism during appearances on NPR, CNN, the BBC, the CBC, and more. I grew up in rural Pennsylvania and attended the University of Massachusetts Amherst, where I played Division I field hockey for the Minutewomen as a midfielder. Since then, I've lived in New Orleans, Louisiana and Manhattan, New York. I spend my free time running, reading, perusing archival fashion, and searching for the world’s best negroni. I also have a debonair tuxedo cat, Westley, who's named after "The Princess Bride." ### Author social links [Bluesky]()