There was a time when everybody thought that Japanese could not do widespread high quality manufacturing. Now they are known for the high quality. There was quality considerations of Finnish ship building, that changed too.

It's very common trend to shift from cheap country into a quality country. The industry will be seeking the next cheap place in the mean time.

This might mean that manufacture is not going to shift to Africa as Chinese might not need that cheap labor because of robotics.

> It's just as likely that a nation like Sweden or Germany might dominate building the robots that go in the manufacturing plants

I vaguely recall reading that the country that has had the foresight to stay at the top of the chain - making the tools that make the tools that make the goods - is Japan. I can't find a link right now, sorry.

You're right, they've been there from day one when it comes to robot manufacturing.

"The Japanese company Kawasaki Robotics started the commercial production of industrial robots over 40 years ago. Approximately 700,000 industrial robots were used all over the world in 1995, of which 500,000 operated in Japan"

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Industrial_robot#History_of_ind...