Hironari Nozaki, who has earned the top spot in the Banks sector on Institutional Investor’s All-Japan Research Team ten times — far more often than any other analyst in the 22-year history of the ranking — is leaving investment research to become an educator.
“Perhaps I work in 14-year cycles,” he quips, noting that he held his first post, in the planning department of Tokyo’s Asahi Bank (now a part of Resona Holdings), from 1986 through 2000, and since then has worked as an analyst covering financial services firms for ABN AMRO, HSBC Securities (Japan) and, since 2004, Citi.
Come April 1, Nozaki — a member of the All-Japan Research Team Hall of Fame — will be teaching economics and finance at Kyoto Bunkyo University.
“While I feel that I have accomplished all I can as an analyst, I will miss those people in the global investment community who helped me along in my career,” the 51-year-old says. “But I just felt that now is the right time for me to kick off a new career in academics and was fortunate to be appointed to a university position. I hope to advance my own knowledge and help improve financial literacy among Japan’s young people.”
Nozaki earned a Ph.D. in policy studies — specializing in banking sector corporate governance — at Chiba University of Commerce in 2010 and for the past two years has been a visiting professor with that institution, teaching economics at the graduate school. He will resign from that position March 31.
He debuted on the All-Japan Research Team in 2003, as a runner-up in Banks. He shot to first place the following year and held the top spot every year through 2013, when he slipped to second place.
Results of this year’s All-Japan Research Team survey will be announced on April 7.
