１. Accounting (Source: “Shukan Keiei Zaimu”)
～Simplification of Quarterly Reporting Disclosures～
The Accounting Standards Board of Japan (ASBJ) is currently discussing measures to simplify quarterly reporting disclosures, which may be implemented as early as next spring.
Currently, companies are in principle required to disclose quarterly income statements for both the three-month period and on a year-to-date basis, but disclosure of three-month information is expected to become optional. Furthermore, the ASBJ is examining the possibility of allowing companies to omit cash flow statement disclosures for the first and third quarters. Alternatively, the ASBJ is considering requiring companies to disclose non-cash items such as depreciation expense and goodwill amortization in the notes to the financial statements.
２. Taxation (Source: “Zeimu Tsushin Magazine”)
If a company wishes to claim an abatement of taxes after finding out that there was an overstatement of taxable income and taxes in the tax return, a “Request for Correction” must be filed to the District Director of the relevant tax office. The District Director thereafter makes the “correction” based on the taxpayer’s request.
The existing statute of limitations for tax correction claims is within one year from the statutory tax filing date. The one-year statute is currently undergoing revision by the Government Tax Commission and will most likely be extended to five years.
The Government Tax Commission is also considering appointing one-half of the examiners of the National Tax Tribunal from outside professionals such as lawyers, CPAs and tax accountants as a means to secure the Tribunal’s independence from the government.
３. This Week’s Words of Wisdom (Source: Sankei Newspaper Evening Edition, July 7, 1970)
“I cannot hold much hope for the future of Japan. I have a feeling, and it only gets stronger by the day, that Japan will be no more if it continues on its present path. Japan will disappear, and in its stead, an impersonal, empty, neutral, intermediate, opulent, shrewd, economic giant will be left standing in a corner of the Far East. Frankly, I don’t even feel like talking to people who couldn’t care less about this situation.” (Yukio Mishima, Japanese novelist and playwright)
On flag holidays (called “hatabi” in Japanese; not so many people know this expression today), I raise the national flag at my home. When I spoke about this to people of my generation at an informal gathering, they automatically responded that I was “right-wing”. Well, if I was “right-wing”, then Japanese athletes who celebrated their victory in the Asian games last month by flying the national flag will all be “right-wing”.
Since when have the Japanese become insensitive about their national flag? Raising the national flag at one’s home is part of everyday life in the United States and Europe. The effects of “brainwashing” that apparently took place in post-war Japanese education are totally appalling.