A $100 Billion Robotics Supplier Is Japan’s Second Biggest Firm
- Keyence is second-largest company by market capitalization
- Surge shows importance of automation, parts suppliers to Japan
Photographer: Yuzuru Yoshikawa/Bloomberg
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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 ($100 billion), 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.