Ex-Nomura man in Chicago takes activist investing to small Japan firms

Tokyo

FROM downtown Chicago, a former Nomura Holdings Inc salesman is taking activist investing to Japan's smaller listed firms, betting that Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's corporate governance overhaul is trickling down to less covered parts of the market.

Masakazu Hosomizu, who works for the US$8.1 billion RMB Capital Management, urges small and microcap stocks with big cash holdings to improve how they use capital and run their businesses. If they ignore him, he goes hostile. He's fought several public campaigns over the past two years, with mixed success.

There's nothing strange about Mr Hosomizu's b…