SECOND TEAM
Takahide Kiuchi Nomura Securities Co.
It’s five straight years at No. 2 for Takahide Kiuchi of Nomura Securities Co. “His comments are timely and concise and are backed by his thorough understanding of policymaking by the Bank of Japan and the government,” explains one buy-side backer. In August, Kiuchi published a report, “First Signs of Progress Towards Japanese Corporate Revival,” in which the economist argued that many companies have overcome problems with excessive debt, which is an important step toward ending the deflation that has plagued Japan since the late 1990s. In January the Japanese government reported that consumer prices declined only 0.4 percent year-over-year in December, the smallest monthly drop in over a year, and the unemployment rate fell from 5.1 percent to 4.9 percent — the first decrease since September; at the same time the central bank predicted that consumer prices would begin to rise in the second quarter of this year.
Polling and tabulation of data as well as reporting on the sector profiles were completed before the March 11 Tohoku earthquake.