< The 2016 All-Japan Research Team
Daisuke Fukushima
Nomura
First-Place Appearances: 1
Total Appearances: 11
Analyst Debut: 2006
For the first time, Daisuke Fukushima earns the top spot on this lineup, rising from the second-place position he held for two years to knock 12-time champion Toshihiko Okino of UBS down to No. 2. He signed on with Nomura in 1992, right after completing a bachelor’s degree in economics at Keio University in Tokyo, and has spent his entire career as an equity researcher. Before shifting to reporting on Japan’s construction and real estate names, Fukushima tracked the apparel, chemicals and steel industries for four years. He “produces useful research that’s important to my investment decisions, especially in this volatile market,” attests one money manager. The 46-year-old analyst’s coverage universe includes 21 stocks, and his long-term advocacy of Daiwa House Industry Co. also wins investor praise. He has been touting the company because the Osaka-based designer and builder’s margins are improving; commercial building revenue is growing; and management is pushing diversification into property management, sales and short-term rentals. During the 12 months through mid-March, Daiwa House jumped 28.7 percent, to ¥3,151, outperforming the domestic sector by 42.8 percentage points. Fukushima also continues to advise clients to buy Tokyo’s Mitsui Fudosan Co., the nation’s largest developer, whose businesses include construction, leasing and maintenance operations. In October news broke that one of the buildings in a Yokohama condominium complex for which Mitsui Fudosan handles sales was tilting and that an employee of a subcontractor admitted to falsifying data regarding the foundation piling work. That sparked a negative turn on the shares, but the researcher remains optimistic. “I expect investors will focus on the company’s favorable fundamentals again,” he says, once the scandal dies down.