Makoto Ueno Daiwa Institute

second team Satoru Kikuchi Deutsche

third team Masaharu Miyachi Morgan Stanley

runners-up Masato Araki Mitsubishi UFJ; Jun Hasebe Daiwa Institute

Zooming from third place to celebrate his first appearance in the winner’s circle is Makoto ­Ueno, who is “not the sort of analyst who only wants to talk about next quarter’s numbers,” says one client. Ueno, 43, joined Daiwa Institute of Research in 1990 after earning a bachelor’s degree in management at Aoyama Gakuin University. In October he urged investors to buy NEC Fielding, at ¥893, because of the software developer’s strong growth prospects. The stock had sizzled up to ¥1,150 by the end of February, gaining 28.8 percent at a time when the sector slipped 6.0 percent. ­Satoru Kikuchi, who moved from Nomura Securities Co. to Deutsche Securities last April, drops one notch to second place but continues to impress buy-­siders with his “extensive knowledge” and “accurate earnings estimates.” Kikuchi acknowledges that most of his stock picks last year failed to meet expectations, although one — a June buy on mobile phone software maker NTT Data Corp., on strong earnings — did outperform the broadmarket by 4.9 percentage points, through February. ­Masaharu Miyachi of Morgan Stanley Japan rises from runner-up to third. Miyachi reiterated his sell call on CSK Holdings Corp. in February 2008, at ¥2,815, on concerns about the IT ser­vices provider’s financial sector subsidiaries. The stock plunged to ¥664 in November, and Miyachi upgraded it to hold, on valuation. But the upgrade was premature: CSK’s share price tumbled to ¥175 through ­February.

Back to the main article and list of sectors

2009 All-Japan Research Team Rankings