I am farming in the real world.

Chapter 219: The Last Fig Leaf of Japanese Manufacturing

On the first day of the World Robot Conference, exhibitors and buyers from all over the world flocked to the conference.

Since it was the weekend, families came to visit the cutting-edge technology. There were also many parents, tourists and school teams who brought their children to see the smart robots.

The opening ceremony of the conference also went on very quickly, with mostly leaders and guests taking the stage to give speeches.

When the crowd dispersed, the originally empty conference venue began to become lively.

There was a crowd of people in front of each booth. Some came to see the gun-carrying fighting robot dog that has been popular on the Internet recently, and some came to check out Tesla's newly launched Optimus Prime up close.

Each exhibitor also tried their best to bring out their latest products.

There are more than 600 types of robots involved, and the functional categories include industrial, home intelligent, bionic, nano-medical robots, etc.

However, the practicality of most of these robots is rather worrying, especially domestic robots like Optimus Prime, most of which are still in the research and development and optimization stage.

There are also those little dancing robots that often appear in short videos. They are still somewhat useful as children's toys and sweeping robots, but they are still a long way from being put into mass production.

Therefore, ordinary people attend such conferences just to watch the fun, to gain some new knowledge, and to increase their horizons.

Or you can spend a little money to let your children experience functions like VR, and just treat it as spending half a day shopping in the mall.

Most of the transactions actually completed at the conference were in the industrial robot category.

Because China's manufacturing industry is undergoing a vigorous upgrade and transformation, the density of industrial robots has just entered the top ten in 2019, and doubled to third in the world in just four years, with an average of 470 robots per employees.

The top two are South Korea with 1012 units per 770 people and Singapore with units per people.

The higher this data is, the more advanced the level of automation in industrial production is.

This shows how excited buyers from all over the country will be when the World Robot Conference is held in the imperial capital.

Because the scale of the industrial chain involved is as high as trillions, previous conferences were able to sign orders worth hundreds of billions of RMB as soon as they opened.

……

FANUC's orange-and-yellow booth attracted a large number of buyers right after the opening ceremony, and the entire booth was packed with people.

After all, it is recognized as the No. 1 in the world's industrial robot circle.

The two orange-yellow robotic arms at the door stood there and began to carefully knit sweaters in front of the whole audience.

That overwhelming sense of showmanship not only made ordinary people attending the exhibition feel awe-inspiring.

Even the heads of several major brands nearby were dumbfounded.

As the saying goes, laymen watch the excitement, while insiders watch the door.

Although they also make industrial robotic arms, their booth at most demonstrated the functions of their products in traditional working environments such as welding, cutting, grasping and lifting.

Although it is a bit old-fashioned, it is suitable for most factory working environments.

However, compared with these two FANUC robotic arms that can knit sweaters with great precision, the heads of other big brands in the industry felt ashamed: "Alas! It seems that this year's big order will be snatched away by FANUC again."

"I'm not as skilled as others! There's nothing I can do!"

Including several friendly Japanese companies that were also exhibiting at the conference, they also sent people to visit us at this time to exchange business and see if they could get some small orders for leftover materials from FANUC.

"Congratulations to President Yamaguchi! This sweater promotion is truly unique and outshines all others! It looks like FANUC will once again be the industry leader and win the sales crown at this robot conference." Hiroshi Fujita, head of KAWASAKI Robotics, came forward and complimented.

Kenji Yamaguchi, President and CEO of FANUC Corporation, folded his arms and nodded with a smile on his face: "Thank you for the compliment, President Fujita. I think your palletizing robots have also been selling well in China in the past two years. We, the last holdouts of Nihong Industrial Company, should cooperate with each other and communicate more."

Among all Japanese robot brands, FANUC occupies a dominant position and is considered the leader in the industry.

Then the brands that follow, such as Yaskawa, Siamatsu, Kawasaki, and NACHI, are the kings in their respective segments.

This is also the classic 'one big leading many small' strategy of Japanese manufacturing exports, which firmly occupies the dominant position in the industry.

However, in recent years, due to the transformation and rise of China's manufacturing industry, various industries in the Japanese country have suffered a considerable impact.

From white appliances such as washing machines and refrigerators to black appliances such as televisions and computers, and even in the era of smartphones, the brands that the Japanese once prided themselves on, such as Sharp, Toshiba, and Panasonic, have been defeated by domestic brands such as Haier and Hisense in their respective fields. Either the business is split up or it is acquired by domestic brands. It can be said that the Japanese are completely defeated.

Recently, even the most proud Japanese cars have reached a critical moment of decline.

Leading Japanese automakers such as Toyota, Nissan, and Honda all saw a sharp decline in profits in the financial reports released to the public in the first three quarters of 2024, and their sales also plummeted at a visibly noticeable rate.

In contrast, Chinese automobile brands have been making great strides, with annual exports reaching more than 2023 million units in 2000, and they are gaining ground in Europe, the Middle East, Africa, South America, and Southeast Asia.

Every additional Chinese-made new energy vehicle sold is equivalent to one less Japanese car sold.

When the automobile industry, which is the most capable of boosting the country's brand image, begins to decline, the last fig leaf left for the Japanese manufacturing industry is left with companies such as Fanuc and Kawasaki, which are involved in cutting-edge robots, struggling to hold on.

"President Yamaguchi is indeed a man of great righteousness! We should work together to prevent the invasion of this black ship of Chinese brands." Hiroshi Fujita nodded.

While chatting with Kenji Yamaguchi, they also began to visit the booths of nearby Chinese brands.

As the saying goes, despise your opponent strategically and take him seriously tactically.

China's manufacturing industry is best at industrial clusters, making cutting-edge technology cheap, although it has not yet fully expanded into the field of industrial robots.

However, the endless stream of new robot brands still put pressure on the two company presidents.

The two became even more worried when they saw that the 19 robot patents owned by Chinese manufacturers on display at the conference accounted for about two-thirds of the global total.

A temporary lead does not mean permanent lead.

Just like the Chinese cars that were previously ridiculed by Japanese car brands, they will be overtaken if they are not careful.

Just after browsing several exhibitors of Chinese brands, the two commented on Chinese-made industrial robots, saying that brands like Estun, New Era, and Tosda are either "poor imitators" or "three generations behind us."

A FANUC staff member came running over in a hurry: "President! You have to go back to the booth first. There's...an accident!"

Yamaguchi Kenji frowned: "Accident?"

He immediately strode towards the core area of ​​the main venue with the person in charge of Kawasaki.

But when they arrived at FANUC's booth, they were dumbfounded!
The FANUC booth, which was packed with people 10 minutes ago and where people were signing orders until their hands were tired, is now deserted.

Including the two knitting robotic arms standing at the entrance of the booth, they all seemed listless at this time and did not attract many tourists to stop at all.

On the other hand, opposite the FANUC booth, the Chinese brand booth with the silver-gray metal Rubik's cube logo was crowded with people and raised mobile phone cameras everywhere.

"How could this be?"

Kenji Yamaguchi and Hiroshi Fujita looked at each other and squeezed into the crowd without saying a word.

When they squeezed to the front row regardless of their image, what caught their eyes were two silver-gray industrial robotic arms with exquisite craftsmanship.

The two robotic arms did not perform any sophisticated and showy movements like the FANUC robots knitting sweaters. Instead, they demonstrated by putting on a pair of shiny silver metal gloves on their hands.

Accompanied by a burst of motor sounds, the two Rubik's Cube arms looked like professional boxers in a boxing ring.

With a "bang", he suddenly punched the opponent's arm!
The deafening sound of metal gloves knocking against each other and the visible sparks not only made the buyers watching on the scene couldn't help but exclaim "Wuhu~", but they were also obviously frightened by the shocking scene.

There were even some curious spectators in the crowd who started to cheer: "One more punch!"

"Fight back!"

"Don't stop! I'm already live streaming!"

Such a shocking scene made even Kenji Yamaguchi and Hiroshi Fujita, two professionals in the field of industrial robots, feel their scalps tingling.

"No...impossible!"

"How could a mechanical arm possibly withstand such an impact?"

"Two punches at most... No! Three punches will destroy the entire machine!"

(End of this chapter)