Kumio Tomonaga Citi The buy side says: “He has a very comprehensive knowledge of the sector and is always worth seeing.”

In first place for a third consecutive year is Kumio Tomonaga, who moved from J.P. Morgan to Citi in August; the 47-year-old analyst also was top-ranked from 2003 through 2007 in the predecessor Retailing sector. A “big-­picture thinker,” according to one buy-side backer, Tomonaga recommended Seven & i ­Holdings Co. to investors in September, at ¥1,954, on the strength of the Tokyo-­based company’s convenience store business; the call underscored one client’s praise of ­Tomonaga’s “strong stock picking skills.” By the end of February, the shares had shot up 16.5 percent, to ¥2,277, and were ahead of the sector by 8.7 percentage points.

Polling and tabulation of data as well as reporting on the sector profiles were completed before the March 11 Tohoku earthquake.