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The first volume of empirical research into the new International Financial Reporting Standards to emerge from Japan, this book compares global and local accounting standards and assesses the effect on capital markets of Japanese firms´ disclosure practices.

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Despite the globalization of accounting standards occurring through convergence to International Financial Reporting Standards, local accounting systems are deeply intertwined with each country´s unique institutions such as its corporate system, disclosure practices and enforcement mechanisms. First, this book empirically analyzes the effects of globalization and localization of accounting rules on corporate behavior such as earnings management, signaling, investment behavior and dividend payout policy. Second, the book unravels the economic consequences of disclosure based on the concept of self-disciplining enforcement such as management forecasts, environmental disclosures and risk disclosures by Japanese firms. This volume is a step forward in understanding the link between accounting and corporate behavior based on a new institutional accounting approach.

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1 Overview (Kunio Ito). Part 1 Earnings Attributes and Corporate Behavior.- 2 What do Smoothed Earnings Tell Us about the Future? (Yusuke Takasu and Makoto Nakano).- 3 The Effect of Accounting Conservatism on Corporate Investment Behavior (Souhei Ishida and Kunio Ito).- 4 Matching expenses with revenues around the world (Tetsuyuki Kagaya ).- 5 Does Comprehensive Income Influence Dividends? Empirical Evidence from Japan (Kunio Ito and Takuma Kochiyama).- 6 Accounting Policy Choice for Negative Goodwill (Yukari Takahashi).- 7 Fair Value Accounting of Pension Liabilities and Discretionary Behavior (Shigeaki Sawada).- 8 The Influence of Informal Institutions on Impaired Asset Write-offs: Securing Future and Current Pies for Payouts in Japan (Keishi Fujiyama).- 9 Ex-post information value of risk disclosure (Kunio Ito, Tetsuyuki Kagaya, and Hyonok Kim). Part 2 Disclosure and Enforcement.- 10 The effects of risk disclosure on evaluation of management forecast revisions (Hyonok Kim).- 11 The Effect of Continuous Disclosure of Environmental Report (Yuki Tanaka).- 12 Analyst Herding around Management Forecasts (Mikiharu Noma).- 13 Management Incentives to Publish Aggressive or Conservative Earnings Forecasts and Disclosure Policy Change (Tomohiro Suzuki).- 14 Effects of Biased Earnings Forecasts: comparative study of earnings forecasts disclosures by US and Japanese firms (Shoichi Tsumuraya).

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The book provides a wealth of detail on the Japanese model of capitalism and its implications for corporate governance and accounting policy. [...] Scholars and practitioners in the IFRS harmonization space will be well served by obtaining a copy of the Ito-Nakano book for their institutional libraries.

Karthik Ramanna, Associate Professor of Business Administration, Harvard University

In The Accounting Review , Vo.90, No.3 2015, pp.1244-1247

Overall, the book is valuable not only for academics but also for business practitioners and policy makers. [...] The implications derived from the empirical evidence of this book may be useful to create a better system. Therefore, this book contributions to the discussion of the field of international accounting.

Fumiko Takeda, Associate Professor, Department of Technology Management, The University of Tokyo

In The International Journal of Accounting , Volume 50, Issue 2, June 2015, pp. 242-245

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