I'm not sure if I can buy into the hyperbole but I do believe that we're going to see some really interesting robots in the near future. In particular the availability of video and language interpretation as inexpensive APIs will allow for much more interesting interactions.
Pepper is a French robot developed and built by a company called Aldebaran. The Japanese are only the investors because they were the only ones to realize the potential of it.
Softbank for software, Foxconn for hardware and Alibaba for market - it's a massive new robotics partnership.