Japan had been a global leader in robotics for decades, but recently the traditional Japanese leaders have been losing ground to the better-funded and better-publicized firms coming out of America and China.

Mujin is changing that. While iRobot and Boston Dynamics have been grabbing headlines and YouTube views, Mujin has been quietly breaking ground with a series of real-world commercial successes in deploying the next generation of industrial robots.

Perhaps Mujin's largest achievement to date has been their project for Chinese e-commerce giant JD, in which they developed the world's first fully-automated logistics warehouse where robots unload the trucks, stock the shelves, and them pick and pack the items for shipment without human intervention.

Today we talk with Issei Takino, who founded Mujin with his co-founder Rosen Diankov, and he explains why Japan looks at robots in a fundamentally different way than Western countries do, and how that will lead to a significant competitive advantage.

It's an interesting conversation, and I think you'll enjoy it.

Show Notes
How to get the ecosystem to adopt your platform
Why robots have not yet taken over industry (or the world)
How to get your first customers in robotics
How to get feedback from reluctant Japanese customers
When being a Japanese startup is an advantage
How America and Japan view robotics and automation differently
Advice for starting companies with multi-cultural teams
The critical differences between Japanese and American universities