Three main services:

1. Assistance with meetings and due diligence on Japanese corporates, including small-caps.
2. Information packs for companies disclosing information in Japanese or English.
3. Consulting on the incorporation of data into the research process.

We often help investors who want to better understand Japanese corporates. This can range from the very basic translation work during meetings to conducting meetings with companies on their behalf, or simply taking investors through a detailed thesis on the company. We can go over the business model, how management has made decisions in the past, and how to interpret communications and targets based on overall Japanese culture and the company’s specific culture and background. Essentially, if an investor does not have a Japan analyst with 20 years of experience, we can temporarily fill that gap for them and do it with an understanding of both typical Japanese corporate and typical foreign investor perspectives.

We also have a team of analysts in Sri Lanka who are highly proficient at information acquisition and data analysis. So, where clients would like cost-efficient provision of basic information required for investment decision-making, we can provide that for them, including translation of Japanese materials where necessary.

Lastly, we have considerable experience incorporating data/alternative data into the investment process and have a keen understanding of why these attempts generally underwhelm. We can help clients who see the potential in this approach but haven’t found success with the specialised data provider offerings.

For those who invest in Japan but lack on-the-ground resources with a deep understanding of the local culture, we can help bridge the gap and allow them to uncover hidden value, or to avoid common pitfalls. We feel this is especially true for Japan as cultural or communication gaps seem to be, if anything, larger than in most other parts of the world.

When it comes to information packs, they tend to be useful for clients who would like consistent and thorough data gathering on relevant companies but lack cost-efficient resources to do so themselves. In addition, we feel that our peer group selection and valuation work is more detailed than most.

Clients who are looking to build deep conviction on a Japanese stock and want to understand the real underlying conditions of a company better than their competitors. This typically applies more to long-only managers or hedge funds with longer time horizons.

For those focused on Asia or global markets but who desire more quantitative rigour than the sell-side or other IRPs offer, our analysis also tends to be well-received.

We have a buy-side mindset, so we do not just parrot the company narrative. Our quantitative and data-driven analytical framework forces us to actually have a basis for projections of top-line growth and margin changes rather than simply trying to fit a narrative. We also have experience as part of management for a listed high-growth startup, so we have a deep understanding of the mentality on the other side – something which is relatively rare even on the buy-side.

In a nutshell, we have a strong understanding of how to interpret data and numbers (we would argue the sell-side is absolutely horrible in this regard, which is why they always miss the forest for the trees), and we have a healthy scepticism borne from actually seeing for ourselves how management thinks and behaves behind closed doors.

Our objectivity and ability to straddle both the Japanese and Western mindsets. On the first point, we absolutely detest false marketing and we thus do not engage in it and generally do not fall for it. On the second, we tend to be able to see where things will get lost in translation between foreign investors and Japanese corporates, and can help investors circumnavigate those potential errors.

I have always felt that traditional analysis and model building lacked rigour and was subject to emotional and psychological biases – as is very well detailed in a lot of investment literature. So, with the rise of quant funds, AI, and big data it looked like there was a real opportunity to apply a more data-literate approach to investment analysis. In particular, we have done significant work with big data/AI companies and their data scientists. That made it obvious to us that neither specialised data scientists nor specialised equity analysts would be able to effectively incorporate strong data principles into traditional investment analysis. That requires people with a strong grounding in both disciplines, and that suits us well.

I got my start in the industry in the mid-2000s in Sri Lanka, working for an outsourcing firm that served investment banks and hedge funds. I worked for a Japan-focused long/short fund and they liked my work, so a year and a half later I found myself in Tokyo working for them directly, covering cyclicals initially and gradually becoming a generalist.

After that, I had a four-year stint helping a financial information startup expand globally, build out research teams, and essentially connect to the non-Japanese world. Right after they listed, I discovered Smartkarma. That led to me setting up LightStream Research.

Two main things: The platform itself is extremely user-friendly and convenient, and I could see from observing the pace of improvement that they really knew what they were doing in terms of the tech side of things.

Maybe more importantly, I felt both the Smartkarma team, and a number of the early IPs were extremely competent and trustworthy. It is of course, always possible to find a few people who fit that description in any organisation no matter how good or bad, but to find an extremely high concentration of those traits across both the top management level and among more junior members generally leads to good things, in my experience.