< The 2016 All-Japan Research Team

Total appearances: 2

Team debut: 2015

Improving on the runner-up position he earned in his debut appearance, Yosuke Ohata merits third-place honors. The 41-year-old researcher received a bachelor’s degree in business and commerce from Keio University in Tokyo and holds an MBA in real estate from the University of Wisconsin – Madison. He joined Mizuho Securities Group in July 2014 from UBS, where he tracked real estate investment trusts for nearly nine years, and quickly expanded his new firm’s sector coverage. Ohata now monitors 37 Japanese REITs, and among the names he has recently added to his portfolio is Invincible Investment Corp., a Tokyo-based investor in residential and office buildings, as well as commercial facilities, parking lots and mortgage-backed securities. In September 2014, after Invincible management refinanced the company’s debt and rebalanced its property portfolio, he launched reporting on the stock with a buy rating, at ¥32,550. He reiterated that positive opinion throughout 2015, advising clients of the benefits to be reaped as J-REIT expanded its high-dividend hotel holdings. By the middle of last month, the shares had rocketed to ¥83,000, soaring 155 percent and outperforming the domestic sector by 139.1 percentage points. During the trailing 12-month period alone, Invincible jumped 45.6 percent, while its peers overall posted a 7.2 percent gain. Ohata “is knowledgeable and pays close attention to earnings and dividend yields, which has helped us make money,” affirms one investor.