Barclays Securities Japan Ltd. Kazutoshi Ohkubo told Reuters in a phone interview that former Morgan Stanley Japan equity strategist Hajime Kitano would join the UK bank in Tokyo today. Kitano was rated by Institutional Investor magazine this year as the number one equity strategist in Japan. Japan's bourse is currently dubbed by Bloomberg as world's best-performing major stock market.

Ohkubo also said that the hiring of Kitano was part of Barclay's plans to hire about seven more experts in Japan equities by the year end. Barclays has joined foreign lenders including UBS AG and Bank of America to capitalize on the benchmark Topix Index's recent 30% jump. The index spike happened despite Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's call to revive the Japanese economy with the president's "Abenomics", his three-pillar strategy of fiscal and monetary stimulus.

According to data compiled by Bloomberg, Kitano stayed in Morgan Stanley for roughly three months prior to his Barclays appointment. He earlier logged work experience in JP Morgan Chase & Co. Japan since 2006. Kitano would be filling in after strategist Fumiyuki Takahashi left the year-old equity strategist post, Okhubo said.

Interestingly, the hiring for the Tokyo bank unit came amidst plans to eliminate 3,700 jobs globally to be announced in February in attempts to curb company expenses.