So farewell, then, Max Chapman, the banker who got closer to the top of a Japanese financial institution than any other westerner, and who resigned last month to spend more time enjoying his Arizona ranch and his personal fortune estimated to be $100 million.
He joined Nomura in 1989 - from Kidder Peabody, where he was president and chief executive officer, and within three years had become head of Nomura Securities International, the US subsidiary.
The US division prospered, largely off the back of its real-estate operations which he ran with Ethan Penner. Just two years ago Chapman's realm, along with the London operations, became a ray of light for Nomura against a dark world of scandal in Japan.
Junichi Ujiie, appointed Nomura's chief executive after the scandals of the mid-1990s, saw in Chapman a man with the potential to meld the overseas units and extend their success to Japan. Chapman kept his role in the US, and was made chairman and chief executive of Nomura International in London. It didn't work. His brash, often arrogant style did not go down well in London.
As early as last March, in an interview with Euromoney, he talked of splitting up one of the most successful businesses - Guy Hands' principal finance group - into separate divisions.