Masashi Morita Okasan

second team Takeshi Koyama Mizuho

third team Hirotoshi Murakami Mitsubishi UFJ

Masashi Morita, 38, of Okasan Securities Co. takes top honors for a second straight year. A long-term bull on Nintendo Co., Morita highlighted his recommendation in October, at ¥24,050, telling clients that the company’s New Super Mario Bros. Wii would be a big seller during the Christmas season. He was right: More than 4.5 million copies of the game were sold in North America alone in the first two months of release. Nintendo’s stock rose 0.5 percent, to ¥24,170, through February. During the same period the broad market gained just 1.3 percent. “He knows his companies — and their markets — better than anyone else in the business,” cheers one investor.

akeshi Koyama of Mizuho debuts in second place. The analyst upgraded Sega Sammy Holdings to outperform in October, at ¥1,103, as a long-term opportunity based on the pachinko and pachislot machine manufacturer’s growing market share. The stock had slipped to ¥1,097 by late February, a loss of 0.5 percent that trailed the sector by 3.1 points, but Koyama remains bullish.

Unranked last year, ­Hirotoshi Murakami of Mitsu­bishi UFJ takes third. Described by one portfolio manager as “a nerd who knows every single tiny piece of pachinko,” Murakami downgraded Sankyo Co. from buy to hold in November, ¥5,070, on declining demand for new pachinko machines. The stock slumped 15.4 percent, to ¥4,290, through February.