How a Secretive Giant Ate an Industry's Profits

摘要

At the biennial Japan International Machine Tool Fair, manufacturers show off the equipment that makes up the guts of the industrial economy. During this year's show, which ended on Nov. 2, more than 800 companies displayed tools such as a box the size of a minivan that sculpts titanium for jet engines, a lathe that carves copper wire into microscopic pins used to test chip circuitry, and a milling machine that turns stainless steel into iPhone cases.