Software engineers and designers are already in high demand. Robotics are getting close to having wider industrial/consumer applications. Once Korea and China's factory wages go up high enough and the price of automation lowers, they'll start to invest heavily in robotics (ala Foxconn).
In Japan, robotic manufacture is on of the primary way they have improved efficiency over the last 20 years.
For a long time more than half the industrial robots in the world are in Japan.
Foxcon recently announced plans to build 1 million industrial robots, which will essentially double the number in the world[1].
I've noticed some people in the thread saying the Japanese programmers aren't good enough to program robots. That simply isn't the case - they lead the world in industrial robotics.
Software's an uphill battle with the culture they have- although perhaps embracing advanced robotics, and the accompanying sophisticated software demands, might help change that.
I second this. There are so many hurdles in the way companies treat the software development process that domestic innovation on large scale is highly unlikely. I hold out hope that it can change though.
Why do you say software's an uphill battle? With so much attention on web technologies like YouTube and Facebook in Japan right now and with the economy so sluggish for so long, I would hope that Japan (and Korea) could find it in them to focus more on developing software in their own country.
There's a lot of problems: software engineers that come out of university are generally much less skilled than from comparable American or European universities, the culture and government policy discourages start-ups, most programmers speak very little English, workforce mobility is extremely low... many companies hire only fresh graduates through a tedious process that begins one year before graduation, and don't even hire experienced people.
Japanese companies usually suck at software. The emphasis has always been on the hardware -- one of the most obvious examples is the cellphones, which have always had extremely good hardware but very poor software and almost no applications to speak of. My 3-year-old phone has an 8MP camera, infrared transmission, TV, and I can use it as a train ticket, but the browser is so bad I can't even use Reddit's mobile version and it can't render HN comment pages with more than 100 or so comments.
Youtube and Facebook are not Japanese companies, after all. The local equivalents, Mixi and Niconico, are Japanese-only and have zero interest in internalization. Some companies like Rakuten are trying to reach overseas, but it's not an easy fight...
An interesting aside. I teach English to a Rakuten person, and they apparently have an internal countdown page, with everyone's name which is below (i think..) 750 on TOEIC (an English exam), ticking down to when their whole company must internally use English.
When it comes to your profession, Japanese culture places significantly more value on making tangible things as compared to the intangible. It is mentioned in passing in the article; the idea is called "monozukuri".
Imagine an old-fashioned craftsman who takes immense pride in working with his hands on something like blades, clockwork or fine jewelry. That sort of mentality is built into their culture.
I'm curious why you think that they don't have innovators who are willing to take risks or do things in a non-traditional way. Saying that something is "baked in" to a culture has never stopped people from challenging the status quo. As their economy falters, I feel that they will have more people who will be willing to innovate.
In short, I'd not write them off because of perceived cultural mores. It's more than likely that your view is either wrong, or misjudged.
That's the other problem. A very low tolerance for failure in the context of "trying something new". If you start a business and it succeeds? We love you. If you start a business and it fails? Forever Pariah.
You are right though that as things grow dire, folks will be more willing to take risks.
Software engineers and designers are already in high demand. Robotics are getting close to having wider industrial/consumer applications. Once Korea and China's factory wages go up high enough and the price of automation lowers, they'll start to invest heavily in robotics (ala Foxconn).