Ayako Watanabe

Nomura Securities Co., Ltd. (NSC) is a wholly-owned brokerage subsidiary of Nomura Holdings, Inc. (TSE: 8604; NYSE: NMR). Headquartered in Tokyo, the firm was founded in 1925. NSC places a strong emphasis on research, both fundamental and quantitative. In addition to stock and bond underwriting, their activities include IPO and M&A advisory, wealth management, separately managed accounts, fund wrap services, prime brokerage and structured equity finance. Their clients include institutions, hedge funds, private banks and private equity funds as well as corporate clients and retail investors.

Morgan Stanley MUFG Securities Co., Ltd. is the Japanese broker-dealer subsidiary of Morgan Stanley (NYSE: MS) in the US. Headquartered in Tokyo, the firm was founded in 1984 and provides investment banking, sales & trading, real estate and investment management products and services. It offers securities services including global sales and trading in fixed income and equities, debt and equities financing and investment research. The firm is a provider of products and services in fixed income, equities, global capital markets and investment research to corporations and institutional clients in Japan.

Mitsubishi UFJ Morgan Stanley Securities Co., Ltd. (MUMSS) is an independent securities brokerage firm headquartered in Tokyo, Japan. The firm was founded in 1948 through a joint venture between Mitsubishi UFJ Securities Holdings Co. Ltd. and Morgan Stanley Japan Holdings Co. Ltd. MUMSS offers domestic retail brokerage services to corporate and institutional clients.

CLSA Securities Japan Co., Ltd. (CLSA Japan) is the Japan-based brokerage subsidiary of CLSA Ltd., itself a subsidiary of CITIC Securities Co., Ltd. (SH: 600030; HK: 6030; PK: CIIHY) in China. The firm was established in 2004 as Calyon Securites Ltd. They subsequently became Credit Agricole Securities Asia B.V., Tokyo Branch and changed their name to CLSA Securities Japan Co., Ltd. in 2013 when they merged with CLSA Japan Co. Headquartered in Hong Kong, CLSA Japan provides brokerage services including Japanese & Asian research and European equities. The CLSA Japan team works closely with the global sales teams in London, NY, Hong Kong and Singapore.

Mizuho Securities Co., Ltd. (Broker) (Mizuho Securities-Broker) is the brokerage division of Mizuho Securities Co. Ltd., ultimately owned by Mizuho Financial Group, Inc. (TYO: 8411; NYSE: MFG) in Japan. The firm was originally founded in 1917 and is headquartered in Tokyo with a network of offices throughout Japan as well as overseas representation through Mizuho entities or strategic partners (in Great Britain, Switzerland, the US, Hong Kong, Mainland China, South Korea, Singapore and India). Mizuho Securities-Broker provides enhanced equity and fixed income execution services for their clients who includes private individuals in Japan, domestic and foreign institutions, non-financial companies, financial institutions and public corporations in the securities and investment banking fields.

Shared Research, Inc. is an independent investment research firm headquartered in Tokyo, Japan. The firm was founded by Oleg Zuravljov in 2009. Shared Research provides institutional investors with internet-based research and information sharing platform that aggregates user editable reports on Japanese companies.