Three-piece dream suit

JAPAN is not, by nature, a boastful country. Its opportunities for bombast have shrunk along with its population. And its economic pride has suffered many years of deflation, a form of macroeconomic self-deprecation, in which firms and workers continuously discount what they do. In some fields, however, Japan still allows itself some swagger. It is, for example, happy to describe itself as a “robotics superpower”. In a speech early this year Shinzo Abe, the prime minister, praised a “dream robot suit” made by Cyberdyne as a prime example of the country’s technological advances. The robotic exoskeleton can add strength and stamina to healthy limbs and restore movement to enfeebled ones. As a symbol of Japanese ingenuity in overcoming debility, the suit’s appeal to Mr Abe is easy to understand.