< The 2016 All-Japan Research Team

Total appearances: 13

Team debut: 2004

For a second consecutive year, Takaaki Yoshino seizes third-place honors. One of ten currently ranked All-Japan Research Team Hall of Famers, the Daiwa Securities Group analyst is “indisputably the hardest-working quant in Japan,” one admirer insists. Given the Bank of Japan’s accommodative monetary policy, says Yoshino, “we need to monitor the market’s reaction to the introduction of a negative interest rate.” Ultralow rates make changes in valuation more obvious, while uncertainty regarding the outlook for the discount rate is “producing major swings in share prices,” he notes. Considering the slowdown in corporate operating earnings, the 50-year-old strategist also counsels that the “ongoing flight to quality around the globe will likely increase investor attention to quality factors such as return on equity.” In this environment, one option for market participants looking seriously for approaches to boosting alpha is a valuation model that takes into consideration the effects of corporate management teams’ conservative accounting practices, Yoshino reports.