FARNBOROUGH: Two startups from Japan’s Fukushima Prefecture exhibited their self-developed drones at this year’s Farnborough International Airshow, held Monday to Friday in Farnborough, Hampshire, southern Britain.

By developing sales channels overseas, Eams Robotics Co. and Space Entertainment Laboratory Inc. aim for future mass production of their product in the prefecture, recovering from the impact of the March 2011 earthquake and tsunami and the subsequent nuclear accident at Tokyo Electric Power Company Holdings Inc.’s Fukushima No. 1 power plant.

The airshow was the first time for Eams Robotics to exhibit a product at a foreign event. Established in 2016 in the city of Minamisoma, the company showed a test model of a rotorcraft drone that can carry up to 5 kilograms, mainly intended for use in logistics.

“The impact is beyond our expectations,” the company’s head, Hideji Sotani, said, surprised that all prepared brochures had been taken on the first day of the airshow, one of the biggest in the world.

Space Entertainment Laboratory, also of Minamisoma, founded in 2014, marked its second international event, as it participated in International Paris Air Show last year. The company’s fixed-wing drone can take off and land on water and is able to take flight without a runway.

According to company official Takenori Hashimoto, its drones are usually for defense use, although there should be demand for use in research and inspections.

The Japanese government has been working for the revival of a coastal industrial base in Fukushima, hit hard by the natural and nuclear disasters. Robots and drones are regarded as an important field in this.

“Drones are a growing industry of the next generation,” a prefectural government official said. “With overseas orders, supply chains can be established for production in the prefecture.”

JIJI Press