The politics of deglobalisation favours the robots

Last week Tokyo was teeming with fund managers from around the world eager to establish how Japan will fare as its biggest trading partners square up for a new cold war. The Daiwa Investment Conference provided the venue and the bento lunch boxes; robots, via their human advocates, provided the most convincing part of the answer.

Geopolitics, runs an argument that particularly favours a cohort of Japanese companies, is increasingly…