Will Japan ever regain its lead in robotics?

In the popular imagination, Japan is almost synonymous with robots. While Japan once dominated cutting-edge robotics, over the past decade she has fallen further and further behind Japan and China. Today we sit down with Chiamin Lai of Firstlight Capital, who believes that Japan might just regain that leadership. We talk about the unique opportunity and advantage Japan has in the deployment of practical physical AI, the enterprise culture that is holding it back, and what a handful of innovators are doing about it today. It's a great conversation, and I think you'll enjoy it.

You can listen to Will Japan ever regain its lead in robotics? online on Radio and Podcast. Open the player on this page to stream the available audio.

Will Japan ever regain its lead in robotics? is an episode from Disrupting Japan by Tim Romero.

This episode is 46:34 long.

This episode was published on Nov 10, 2025.

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