When Japanese technicians cracked open a Unitree G1 humanoid robot, they found a reason to give up.
Nikkei xTECH, a Japanese technology media outlet, published a teardown video of Unitree’s G1 on July 23. The verdict, as reported by CCTV News, was blunt: China’s humanoid robot technology has clearly moved beyond the “show-and-tell” stage, and Japan cannot realistically close the gap in the short term.
The video shows Japanese technicians and journalists openly expressing astonishment at the sophistication of the G1’s internal structure and engineering. This is not a casual compliment — Japan has been the world leader in industrial robotics for decades with FANUC, Yaskawa, and Kawasaki. For Japanese tech media to concede this openly is noteworthy.
The recognition carries commercial weight. GMO AI and Robotics, a subsidiary of GMO Internet Group, signed a distributorship agreement with Unitree in June, becoming the official Japanese dealer for Unitree’s humanoid robots (G1, H1) and quadruped robots (Go2, B2). The company will also bundle communication services, cloud computing resources, and cybersecurity solutions with the hardware.
The implicit message is clear: if even Japan’s own technology media says the gap is insurmountable, the humanoid robotics race has entered a new phase — one where Chinese companies are no longer catching up, but setting the pace.
Translated and adapted from Sohu IT (it.sohu.com).