Former Nomura Securities Co. Chairman Setsuya Tabuchi, credited with building the company into one of the world's largest brokerage house during the high-flying bubble-economy era, died of heart failure Thursday night, his family said. He was 84.
Tabuchi, a native of Okayama Prefecture, joined what was then called Nomura Securities after graduating from the law faculty of Kyoto University in 1947.
Mainly working in the marketing division for corporate customers, he took the company's helm at the relatively young age of 54.
During his presidency, Tabuchi helped Nomura boost its earnings in international operations, an area in which the brokerage had been mediocre.
Before Tabuchi handed the presidency to Yoshihisa Tabuchi and became chairman in December 1985, he was able to transform Nomura into one of the world's largest securities companies.
Even after he became chairman, he effectively reigned over Nomura and helped the company expand further, riding on an investment boom that swept the country during the era of the speculation-driven, asset-inflated bubble economy in the late 1980s.
He was credited with making Nomura Japan's largest company in terms of pretax profit in the year through September 1987.
In 1990, Tabuchi was named vice chairman of the Japan Federation of Economic Organizations (Keidanren), the first time the post was held an official from the securities industry.
He resigned as chairman in July 1991 to take the blame for the company's involvement in two scandals.
