Robots could fill the jobs of 3.5 million people in Japan by 2025, a thinktank says, helping to avert worker shortages as the country's population shrinks.

日本一智囊机构指出，到2025年，机器人将填补日本350万个劳动力空缺，这将有利于缓解该国因人口减少而造成的劳动力不足问题。

Japan faces a 16 percent slide in the size of its workforce by 2030 while the number of elderly will mushroom, the government estimates, raising worries about who will do the work in a country unused to, and unwilling to contemplate large-scale immigration.

据日本政府估计，随着老龄人口的迅速增加，到2030年，日本的劳动力将减少16%。对于一个不习惯也不愿意大规模引入外来劳动力的国家来说，这种状况让人担忧谁能来填补这个劳动力空缺。

The thinktank, the Machine Industry Memorial Foundation, says robots could help fill the gaps, ranging from microsized capsules that detect lesions to high-tech vacuum cleaners.

智囊机构“机器工业纪念基金会”说，机器人可以来帮忙——小到可探测损伤的微型胶囊，大至高科技真空吸尘器。

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