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Katsushi Saito Machinery First appearance: 1997 No. of total appearances: 17 No. of first-place appearances: 12 Katsushi Saito wanted to see the world, and becoming an equity research analyst helped him do just that. He joined Nomura Research Institute, a management consulting firm headquartered in Tokyo, after earning a bachelor’s degree in international relations at the University of Tokyo in 1988. The institute sent him to Frankfurt in 1992 to study Germany’s machinery sector. When he returned home four years later, he transferred to Nomura Securities Co. — both NRI and the securities unit are subsidiaries of Nomura Holdings — and began applying what he had learned to Japan’s machinery sector. Apparently, he learned very well. He debuted on the All-Japan Research Team in 1997, just one year after he began publishing research, as a runner-up in Machinery. By 2000 he was No. 1 in the sector. He has captured the top spot 12 times in his 17 appearances on the team. These days, the 47-year-old analyst’s coverage universe extends beyond Japan and across Asia; in fact, he estimates that he spends only about 30 percent of his time in his home country. Last year he made 14 trips overseas, primarily to see how Asia-based manufacturers are implementing factory-automation technologies that were developed in Japan. Saito’s “broad, pan-Asian knowledge is a key strength,” one money manager told Institutional Investor in 2011. “With his deep knowledge of the Japanese machinery industry, he covers a wide range of companies in the sector, including small- and midcap stocks, and his investment recommendations have been right!” Would the analyst recommend his career path to others? The work is hard, he concedes, but the role provides “opportunities for growth at a young age.” Do as he did and the whole world will open before you, Saito says. — Henry Scott Stokes | |||||||||||||||||||
