Robert Feldman is chief economist at Morgan Stanley Japan Securities, where, as cohead of Japan Equity Research, he is responsible for forecasting the direction of the Japanese economy.
Prior to joining Morgan Stanley in 1998, he was the chief economist for Japan for Salomon Brothers, and before that he worked for the International Monetary Fund.
Born in Oak Ridge, Tenn., Feldman has a Ph.D. in economics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and BAs in both economics and Japanese studies from Yale University. Now age 53, he first came to Japan in 1970 as a high school exchange student, and has lived here continuously since 1989.