Nomura Asset Management is dialing back the spotlight on one-year performance so portfolio managers can focus on building durable track records. In an Oct. 2 interview, President Shoichi Ohkoshi said the firm scrapped the one-, three- and five-year review windows and will now run its quantitative evaluations over three-, five- and 10-year spans. The goal is to nudge behavior toward steadier, longer-term investing as Japan's rising rate environment and buoyant equities market create fresh opportunities.
He put it this way: he wants them to "have conviction and a style, and take a steady approach to improving performance over the medium to long term." On pay, he added, "We want to pay appropriate compensation so that excellent managers are properly evaluated and can continue to generate performance over the long term." When asked whether the overall compensation pool for fund managers will grow, he said that would hinge on the company's performance.
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Before this role, Ohkoshi held both the president and chairman titles at JPMorgan Asset Management in Japan. Breaking with past practice dating back to the firm's founding, he is the first Nomura AM chief to be hired from beyond the Nomura group. He said he aims to lift Nomura AM's investment and product capabilities to match global leaders. "Looking at the world, we are still very much in the position of a challenger," he said. "My mission is to accelerate our progress from here toward global standards."
A giant manager prioritizing 3-, 5- and 10-year outcomes over quick hits is a reminder that durable performance takes time. The backdrop in Japan is supportive right now, but Nomura AM is making a structural change to how it evaluates success, not just chasing a hot market. And while it wants to reward strong managers, whether the total bonus pool grows will depend on the firm's own results. That is a useful lens for anyone weighing strategies that trade splashy short-term wins for compounding over years.
Longer evaluation windows encourage genuinely different behavior. Join Market Briefs free and follow the shift.
