To mark the 20th anniversary of the All-Japan Research Team survey, Institutional Investor introduces the All-Japan Research Team Hall of Fame, which honors those analysts who have amassed at leastten first-place appearances in their sector or sectors -during a very difficulttime for Japanese stocks. The article accompanying the 1994 roster noted that, in spite of a lengthy and severe recession, money managers were convinced that "Japan's economic recovery will start at midyear." In retrospect, it seems significant that the article did not specify the year in which said revival was expected to begin. Easy credit in the 1980s-and real gross domestic product growth that averaged 4 percent annually - had fueled a real estate boom that sent Japanese housing and stock prices soaring. The Nikkei 225 Stock Average, which had vaulted some six-fold during that decade, reached its highest close, 38,916, on the last trading day of 1989. By the end of the following year,the index had plunged nearly 39 percent, to 23,849.
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