A new greeter at the entrance of the Mitsukoshi department store in central Tokyo has caused a stir. The worker, dressed in a kimono and cheerfully welcoming shoppers in honorific Japanese, is a robot made by Toshiba and shows how lifelike these machines can be.

This latest example of Japan's skill comes just as Prime Minister Shinzo Abe is calling for a "robot revolution". Advances in robotic computing power, the ability to recognise voices and images, and machine learning could help the country overcome the handicap of a fast-ageing populace and a declining workforce.

At the opening of Japan's Robot Revolution Initiative Council on May 15, Abe urged companies to "spread the use of robotics from large-scale factories to every corner of our economy and society". Backed by 200 companies and universities, the five-year, government-led push aims to deepen the use of intelligent machines in manufacturing, supply chains, construction, and health care, while expanding robotics sales from 600 billion yen ($6.4 billion) annually to 2.4 trillion yen by 2020.

In factory robots, Japanese companies including Fanuc, Yaskawa Electric, and Kawasaki Heavy Industries command 50 per cent of the global market, says the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI). The nation's companies also enjoy a 90 per cent share in parts such as precision gears, servo motors to move robotic limbs, and specialised sensors.

Yet the government says Japan's premier position is at risk. China has 530 robotic companies, and its market share on the mainland grew from 4 per cent in 2012 to 13 per cent last year, a worrisome trend for Japanese companies that have enjoyed solid profits there.

"China is catching up fast," though quality remains an issue, says Wang Tianran, a robotics specialist with the Chinese Academy of Sciences. He thinks China will close the quality gap with Japan and South Korea by specialising in simple, smart, and flexible factory robots similar to Boston-based Rethink Robotics' Sawyer, a small, mobile factory model. South Korea has doubled the size of its robot sales since 2009 to 2.4 trillion won ($2.87 billion) in 2013. The country is working on service robots for health care and other markets. Unlike factory robots, "where Japan, Germany, and the US are dominant players, the intelligent service robot industry is still at a nascent state," says Jeong Man Tae, a senior researcher at the Korea Institute for Industrial Economics & Trade.