< The 2015 All-Japan Research Team
Makoto Ueno
Daiwa Securities Group
First-place appearances: 2
Total appearances: 15
Analyst debut: 2001
Beginning this year, the former Software/Business and Software/Entertainment sectors are combined into a single category. Makoto Ueno of Daiwa Securities Group, who was the top-ranked business software analyst in 2014, wins the No. 2 position on this new roster. He thinks the sector will post healthy results in the year ahead and plans to expand his portfolio beyond the 20 companies currently under his coverage. The wider group is benefiting from an uptick in information technology spending, especially among manufacturers and financial companies, he notes. Moreover, he foresees “a boost to the sector from Japan’s national [identification] program,” which will be implemented in January 2016. “Major sector players will likely continue to increase operating profit by 15 to 20 percent annually through 2020,” adds Ueno, 49. Of course, not all the news is good, he cautions. “The issue of system engineer shortages has already come to the surface with the country’s population declining and the IT services industry unpopular among job seekers. This could be serious risk to small to midsize system integrators given their disadvantage in hiring versus major firms.” In this environment, the researcher says, more competitive providers will focus on leveraging automation, packaged software and cloud IT services to reduce dependency on manpower. Investors would be wise to consider his opinions on this subject, one admirer insists, because “Ueno is a great IT services analyst.”