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Hidemaru Yamaguchi Health Care & Pharmaceuticals First appearance: 2001 No. of total appearances: 13 No. of first-place appearances: 12 Equity research was not Hidemaru Yamaguchi’s first career choice. “As a young man I wanted to be a jet fighter pilot,” he says, “but I could not do that because I did not have 20-20 vision.” Still eager to pursue a cutting-edge career, Yamaguchi set his sights on becoming a sell-side analyst instead. He wanted to secure a position with a brokerage in the U.S., which at the time was far ahead of the rest of the world insofar as the financial services industry was concerned, he says. But after graduating from the University of Tokyo with a bachelor’s degree in agricultural sciences in 1988, he accepted a position as a biotechnology analyst at Nomura Securities Co. Ten years later — and armed with an MBA from the University of California, Los Angeles Anderson School of Management — Yamaguchi left Nomura for Nikko Salomon Smith Barney (now Citi) at the urging of Yoshihiko Yamamoto, an old college friend. Yamamoto, who was in the midst of an eight-year run atop the Pharmaceuticals & Health Care sector, was planning to move to another part of the company. “He brought me in to take over for him,” Yamaguchi explains. The analyst, who is headquartered in Tokyo, assumed not only company coverage but also the top spot on the roster — his reign beginning the year after Yamamoto’s ended. These long-time friends are the only analysts to have appeared at No. 1 in the sector in the 20-year history of Institutional Investor’s All-Japan Research Team. Twenty-five years into his career, Yamaguchi is still enthusiastic about the job. He rises each morning at 5:00 o’clock and is at his desk by 6:30 a.m. “I have the chance to learn something new every day,” the 47-year-old analyst says. “There is always something very exciting, like new therapies or estimating the impact of new drugs or new technological innovations.” Not that he’s upbeat about all discoveries. “Sometimes noninnovative drugs are launched primarily to generate huge earnings,” the Tokyo-based researcher contends. “I see this as a waste of resources.” His advice to those thinking of becoming an equity analyst? “You have to be patient — building a career takes some time — but analyzing the industry and stock prices is an exciting job,” he says. “If you like to learn new things, it’s an interesting experience.” — Henry Scott Stokes | |||||||||||||||||||
