< The 2016 All-Japan Research Team

Total appearances: 8

Team debut: 2008

After two years in the runner-up position, Mizuho Securities Group’s Yoshihiro Ujihara retakes third place, the position he held in 2012 and 2013. The analyst has expanded his sector portfolio by one over the past year, for a total of 13 Japanese small-cap names, and plans to continue broadening his coverage. Last April he added Daifuku Co., assigning the Osaka-based supplier of materials-handling equipment a buy rating thanks in large part to its booming distribution system for Internet retailers. By the middle of last month, the stock had jumped 18 percent, to ¥1,844, pacing the domestic sector by 4.9 percentage points. Going forward, he also prefers Kanagawa’s V Technology Co., which manufactures computer parts, on the strength of contracts to supply its flat screens to major cell phone and tablet makers. Ujihara, 56, anticipates that the shares could trade as high as ¥6,400; they closed in mid-March at ¥4,575. “He makes many company visits, so you can rely on his information,” avers one portfolio manager.