Japan Tries on New Areas of Manufacturing

choi

Michael Schuman, Japan’s Economy Seeks a New Spark; The country shifts to making the stuff that makes stuff, hoping to leave its slow-growth doldrums far behind. New York Times, Apr 9, 2018.
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/05/ ... -manufacturing.html

Note:
(a) Making vacuum bellows, "The cylindrical metal products made by Irie Kōken Company[, Ltd 入江工研株式会社 (1966- ; abbreviation: IKC; founder whose surname is 入江; based in Tokyo)] more resemble Slinkys on steroids * * * But they perform the crucial if underappreciated task of helping makers of semiconductors and LCD panels keep their products clean and working. * * * Norihiro IRIE, Irie Koken's president 社長 入江 則裕 * * * Japan has become an essential supplier of robotics that power assembly lines; electronic systems for cars; circuit boards, sensors and other parts in your smartphone; and a host of other technical components and hardware hidden from the consumer's eye.  'Japan is moving toward 'an entirely different strategy, where other countries cannot compete,' said Ryōji MUSHA 武者 陵司 [founder and president], president of the economic analysis outfit Musha Research 武者リサーチ [2009- ] in Tokyo * * * Mr Irie said business had not been this good since he took over as the company's president 19 years ago."

* For toy Slinky, see Jonathan Schifman, The Remarkable, War-Torn, Spacefaring History of the Slinky. Popular Mechanics, Aug 8, 2017
https://www.popularmechanics.com ... slinky-toy-history/

two consecutive paragraphs:

In 1943 in the midst of World War II "Mechanical engineer Richard James was trying to develop a new tension spring that could keep a [navy] ship's equipment secure while the vessel rocked at sea. One day he accidentally knocked a spring off his worktable. The spring tumbled to the floor, landing on one of its ends, but instead of jumping back up, the spring flopped end over end, walking across the floor [check Youtube.com for Slinky walking downstairs].

"The experience gave James an idea: Something as simple as a spring could be a toy. He told his wife, Betty, about the experience, and she decided to come up with a name for the new walking spring. In 1944, when leafing through the dictionary in search of an appropriate term, Betty found a word meaning sinuous and graceful—just the way the spring moved and sounded as it flopped along. The word was 'slinky.'

(b) "Rosen Diankov, chief technology officer at the robotics company Mujin Inc * * * Mr Diankov, an American robotics specialist, founded Mujin in 2011 with Issei TAKINO 滝野 一征 [company website says he graduated from an American university without elaboration; taki is Japanese pronunciation for 滝] of Japan, a former cutting-tool sales manager, to produce devices that control industrial robots. Its headquarters in a refurbished warehouse in east Tokyo * * * Such entrepreneurial companies are all too rare in Japan, where venture capital and risk-taking are scarce compared with the United States or China. * * * 'We could have opened our company in Silicon Valley, said Mr Takino, the company's chief executive. 'One of the good things about being in Japan is that it is very easy to find a customer.' [I can not see why] * * * When the Beijing-based online retailer JD.com wanted to automate an unmanned warehouse in China, it turned to Mujin."
(i) In Japanese media, Mujin Inc is mentioned just like that -- in English. Occasionally katakana is added behind it in parentheses to denote the Japanese pronunciation (in case a Japanese reader can not read English). For its meaning, see next.
(ii) For Rosen Diankov (where Rosen is a given name though mostly its a surname), see founders' interviews

創業者インタビュー. Mujin Inc, undated
https://mujin.co.jp/about-founder.html
(introduction: "MUJIN CTO 兼 共同創業者 出杏光 魯仙 博士   Diankov Rosen（デアンコウ・ロセン） 1983年ブルガリア生まれ。10歳の時に一家でアメリカに移住。高校でコンピューターサイエンスと人工知能について学び、カーネギーメロン大学のロボティクス研究所で「自律マニピュレーションシステムの自動構築」のテーマで博士号を取得する。卒業後の2011年に日本で「MUJIN」を共同設立する。"  //  interview: Diankov said: "文字通り「無人」の工場を造ること。" (my translation: By its word, [the company name Mujin means] our business is to make an unmanned factory) )
(A) my translation of introduction: Born in 1983 in Bulgaria. At 10 moved with family to America. In 高校 [short for 高等学校 = senior high school] learned computer science and artificial intelligence; obtained PhD from Carnegie Mellon University's robotics graduate school with the thesis of "self-building of autonomic manipulation system."  After graduation, in 2011 in Japan [he] co-founded MUJIN.
(B) 出杏光 is a made-up Japanese surname. In other words, Rosen Diankov  is the only person in the world with that Japanese surname.
(C) Japanese-English dictionary:
* mujin (principal); mu-nin  無人 【むじん(P); ぶにん; ぶじん; むにん】 (n) "lack of help; (2) (ant[onym]: 有人) unmanned; uninhabited"

(c) "Some of Japan’s big corporations are heading in the same direction. The electronics giant Panasonic was once synonymous with televisions and videorecorders. But over the past six years, it has drastically downsized its consumer businesses — it no longer sells televisions in the United States — and shifted into industrial electronics, including the batteries for Tesla roadsters and sensors and cameras for automobiles."