Japan – the view from the top: Seiji Nakata, Daiwa

No large financial institution in Japan attracts more doubts about its long-term sustainability than Daiwa, but as its CEO says: 'People on the outside don't know us.'

JAPAN FOCUS

Crunch time for banks
Wealth managers face a problem for the ages
Five approaches to taking on the world
Seiji Nakata, Daiwa
Tatsufumi Sakai, Mizuho
Kanetsugu Mike, MUFG
Kentaro Okuda, Nomura
Jun Ohta, SMBC
Flowers’ 20-year journey in and out of Shinsei
Governance brings an M&A bounty

Ever since the dissolution of its joint venture with SMBC in 2009, the theory has been the same: Daiwa, lacking balance-sheet strength and in a declining domestic brokerage environment, which is dominated by Nomura, must sooner or later be bought by someone else.