Masashi Akutsu

Masashi Akutsu is Chief Japan Equity Strategist. Akutsu has a grasp over global macroeconomic and underlying trends across markets and combines it with an analyst's bottom-up perspective to put together Japanese equities outlooks and investment strategies. He emphasizes conclusions drawn from data. Akutsu also explores analysis of themes in the Japanese economy and Japanese companies. Akutsu was ranked No.1 in the strategist division of Institutional Investors magazine's analyst rankings in 2021 and 2022. He also ranked No.1 in the strategist division of Nikkei Veritas magazine's analyst rankings in 2021 and 2022. After joining Nikko Cordial Securities (now SMBC Nikko Securities) in 2005, Akutsu handled the planning of overall strategy for retail equity, then gained experience covering Japanese equities in the global market analysis department, before becoming an equity strategist in the equity research department in 2011. He has been a Chief Equity Strategist since 2016. Akutsu graduated from Aoyama Gakuin University.