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| Toshinori Ito Energy & Utilities First appearance: 1994 No. of total appearances: 18 No. of first-place appearances: 10 “The need for Japanese equity research in the global market declined as Japan’s influence in the world economy decreased, and lots of Japanese industries and companies lost their global competitiveness,” declaresToshinori Ito, who decamped the bulge bracket last year to launch his own energy research boutique in Tokyo. Not that the 53-year-old thinks Japan’s days as an economic powerhouse are necessarily over. “I believe there is a good possibility for a company with high growth and international reputation to emerge in Japan,” he adds. Ito earned a bachelor’s degree in chemistry at Tokyo University of Science in 1984 and considered a career in the chemicals industry, but instead accepted a position as an energy analyst at Daiwa Institute of Research. He reasoned that the firm, with many clients in many industries, would offer a path to other careers if he ever felt the desire for change. He debuted on Institutional Investor’s inaugural All-Japan Research Team, in 1994, in a tie for third place in Basic Materials. Ito dropped from the ranking until 1998, when he captured second place in Energy. From that point on he appeared on the team every year, through 2012. Ito moved to HSBC Securities Japan in 1999, the same year in which he claimed his first appearance at No. 1. The following year he joined UBS Warburg and regularly ranked in Energy or Utilities — or both — until 2004, when those two sectors were merged. Ito has logged 18 total appearances and ten first-place finishes on the All-Japan Research Team. He “gets the big picture right,” one money manager told II in 2011, the year of Ito’s most recent appearance at No. 1 in the sector. (He slipped to runner-up last year.) These days, the president of Ito Research and Advisory Co. says he is happy to be running his own shop. When asked what advice he would offer to someone considering a career in equity research, he says it’s important to understand that the work is hard and “requires continuous efforts to improve your analyst skills and deepen your knowledge of industries and companies.”— Henry Scott Stokes |
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