< The 2015 All-Japan Research Team

Total Appearances: 1

Analyst Debut: 2015

UBS’s Sumito Takeda, 39, wins first-place honors in this category, which reappears on the All-Japan Research Team survey after a 12-year absence. Last year he earned the No. 3 position on the Software/Entertainment lineup and was a runner-up in Software/Business. Takeda moved to UBS in 2006 from the Daiwa Institute of Research, where he reported on small-cap equities, and holds a master’s degree in philosophy from Waseda University. Now covering 18 Japanese Internet companies, he is neutral on the group overall, whose shares tumbled 10.4 percent during the 12 months through late March, lagging Japan’s broad market by 44.5 percentage points. The industry is undergoing a transition away from a focus on gaming names, and “we think it likely that nongame-type business could take longer to generate earnings than game-type business and that the capital market will need to be patient and endure this gap,” he explains. “Even so, once the sector has emerged from this tough stage, there could be a prolonged harvest period.” One player he dubs a standout during this time of change is Tokyo-based CyberAgent, a diversified media provider that operates the popular Ameba blogging service and owns MicroAd, Japan’s leading online advertising platform. Takeda highlighted his buy rating on the stock in October, citing managements focus on the smartphones market and structural reform of the Ameba unit. Good call. CyberAgent’s shares had rocketed 74.6 percent by late last month, advancing to ¥6,800 and far outdistancing the sector’s rise of 23.5 percent.