All-Japan Hall of Fame - Jun Harada

Jun Harada Transportation First appearance: 2000

No. of total appearances: 14

No. of first-place appearances: 12 Jun Harada’s first experience as a sell-side analyst might very well have been his last.

Harada began his career in 1994, after earning a bachelor’s degree at the University of Tokyo, as a small-cap analyst at Yamaichi Securities Co. The fabled brokerage house — at the time, one of Japan’s Big Four — ceased operations in 1997 after amassing some ¥260 billion ($2.8 billion) in investment losses that the firm’s management had tried desperately to conceal. Yamaichi’s final president, Shohei Nozawa, erupted in tears during a nationally televised press conference announcing the closure and begged other banks to assist so that “workers won’t be thrown into the street.”

His heartfelt plea did not go unanswered; many rival firms made room for the beleaguered Yamaichi employees. Harada moved to Nikko Research Center, then in 1998 to Warburg Dillon Read (later absorbed by UBS) to cover transportation stocks.

Although Harada’s tenure at Yamaichi did not end well, he nonetheless retains fond memories. “They had a classic, family-like collective culture, which seems unusual now,” the 42-year-old says. “I learned everything from them — how to write, present, communicate, analyze and so on.”

And learned well, apparently. Harada debuted on Institutional Investor’s All-Japan Research Team in 2000, in third place in Transportation, climbed to second the following year and claimed the sector’s top spot for the first time in 2002. The Tokyo-based analyst has held the title every year since.

In 2011, Harada’s tenth straight year at No. 1, one buy-side supporter told II, “Harada-san provides solid, value-driven arguments that rise above the noise of short-term trade ideas.” — Henry Scott Stokes