< The 2015 All-Japan Research Team

Total appearances: 12

Team debut: 2004

Earning his fourth straight third-place finish on this list is Daiwa Securities Group’s Kazuhiro Miyake, who is “very clear and concise in his analysis,” one admirer insists. In addition to monitoring the direction of the Japanese economy and the ramifications of the Shinzo Abe government’s initiatives regarding the domestic investment environment, the 55-year-old researcher is keeping tabs on such global issues as European economic activity, energy and commodities market moves and geopolitical risks stemming from turmoil in the Middle East and Ukraine. However, “an unexpected surge in U.S. interest rates would pose the largest threat within this year to the price performance of Japanese equities,” he says. “In such a case, world stock markets would suffer severe sell-offs and the Japanese yen would climb, causing the Tokyo stock market to significantly underperform peers.” At the same time, he thinks the nation’s stock market is poised to continue its uptrend, thanks to “structural changes that Japanese companies have been experiencing amid efforts to generate higher earnings per share and boost corporate value.” Miyake forecasts that the Nikkei 225 Stock Average will rise to 20,000 in midyear and to some 22,000 at year’s end. During the 24-month period through December, the benchmark rocketed 67.9 percent, and it had jumped 12.1 percent higher by late March, to close at 19,560.22. Generally, Miyake is bullish on providers of noncommodities, like those in the automobiles, construction, electronics, precision instruments and services sectors. Over the mid- to long-term horizon, he notes, the aging society worldwide “bodes well for investment themes including automation, labor saving and medical technology.”