As executives at Nomura Holdings. prepare to discuss cost cuts at a strategy retreat in the Japanese resort town of Karuizawa next week, the topic will be a familiar one to many.

Nomura has been agonising over its business strategy since it acquired the European and Asian arms of the failed Wall Street firm Lehman Brothers in 2008. The acquisition immediately boosted Nomura's fixed costs - mostly because it guaranteed many former Lehman bankers' compensation at bull-market levels for up to two years.