Pros
If you are a person who just wants to find a job, sit quietly in a corner and get paid, even if you are doing a mediocre job: Daiwa is your kind of firm. Excellent place for employees who don't like challenging themselves.
Cons
As a non-Japanese employee, your career progression is limited. D spent big bucks expanding, but all the senior management levels are filled by Japanese nationals. In addition, they still do the 'management shuffle': namely every 2 years senior management changes seats. I was working in equities product line and was gone by the next shuffle: but they put the old senior boss of HR in charge of equities! This is a con as the mgmt is focused on saving their @rses until the 2 years are up. As a result the mindset becomes protective, insular and risk-avoiding: Don't rock the boat, don't show long-term strategic thinking and don't try to fix problems: because if it's not complete or it doesn't work: you get shipped to Siberia in the next mgmt shuffle.