TOKYO: It’s the rise of the robots: Japan’s second largest company is now a maker of industrial automation systems, highlighting the rising importance of a less visible sector to a nation long associated with consumer-facing brands.
Keyence Corp, a maker of machine vision systems and sensors for factories, has jumped 19% this year to become Japan’s second-largest company by market value. At a valuation of over 11 trillion yen (US$100bil), it has overtaken telecommunications giants SoftBank Group Corp, and NTT Docomo Inc, which have jostled for the honor to sit behind Toyota Motor Corp. over most of the past decade.