Lawson expands I‑Robo2 cooking robot to three Tokyo‑area stores

Lawson announced that it will install the TechMagic cooking robot I‑Robo2 in three stores in the Tokyo metropolitan area. The rollout begins on 6 August at the Ebina Chuo store in Kanagawa, continues on 27 August at the Yokohama Tarumachi‑3‑chome store, and will reach the Koto Shiochi‑1‑chome store in Tokyo on 17 September.

The I‑Robo2 robot, developed after more than six months of studying skilled chefs’ stir‑fry techniques, can prepare 13 menu items—including fried rice, vegetable stir‑fry and yakisoba—at temperatures above 300 °C, with cooking times of 1.5 to 2.5 minutes. A pilot at Lawson’s North Ōtsuka store, launched in July 2025, showed a roughly 20 % year‑over‑year increase in sales of in‑store cooked items, outpacing the national average by about 10 %.

Lawson plans to use the three‑store trial to gauge demand and consider broader adoption across its roughly 9,900 locations, where it already operates “machikado kitchens” in about 70 % of stores.