1. Accounting(Issuance of “Japan’s Modified International Standards (JMIS)”)
The Accounting Standards Board of Japan (ASBJ) issued an exposure draft on “Japan’s Modified International Standards (JMIS): Accounting Standards Comprising IFRSs and the ASBJ Modifications” on July 31st.JMIS are comprised of (1) Application of JMIS, (2) Standards and Interpretations issued by IASB and adopted by the ASBJ, and (3) ASBJ Modification Accounting Standards.
With regards to part (3), these two are the theme, accounting for goodwill and accounting for other comprehensive incomes that have much difference to the basic idea of accounting standards in Japan (e.g. to preserve the usability of current net income as an indicator of company’s performance.)
The ASBJ proposes to “delete or modify” the relevant provisions of IFRS/IAS related to the non-amortization of goodwill and all non-recycling processes excluding revaluation surplus as to the revaluation model of tangible fixed assets and intangible assets.The scope of companies subject to this standard and the time to be applied will be settled at a stage when JMIS is institutionalized by the financial service agency.(Source:“Keiei Zaimu Magazine” No.3174)
2. Taxation (Change to the consumption tax system for cross-border transactions)
The case that digital products such as e-books and music are provided by overseas suppliers is treated as overseas transactions (non-taxable) since whether the service rendered was Japan is currently determined by “the address or the location of the office of the service provider”. Nonetheless, that will be changed to “the address of the person who receives the service” in the 2015 tax reform, thus it seems that consumption tax will be imposed on such cross-border transactions as domestic transactions.(Source: “Zeimu Tsushin Magazine” No.3318&3321)
3. Labor Management(Minimum Wages）
The Central Minimum Wages Council have announced the targets for a minimum wage raise. They recommend that the national average of the minimum hourly wage be raised to JPY780, and that the national weighted average of the raise be JPY16. By this fall, regional minimum wages will be revised based on these targets, taking into account the individual circumstances of the region. If the targets are achieved, the “reversal phenomenon” of the minimum wage being lower than welfare benefits is expected to be resolved.
There are two types of minimum wages; the regional minimum wage is set for each prefecture, and the specific (industrial) minimum wage applies to workers in specific industries. The higher of the two is applied to a worker. It should be noted that minimum wages are applied to all workers regardless of the type of employment, and that dispatched workers are subject to the minimum wage applicable to the workplaces to which they are dispatched.(Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare, July 2014)
4. This Week’s Words of Wisdom（Motto）
“You can make wild ducks tame, but you can never make tame ducks wild again. One might also add that the duck which is tamed will never go anywhere any more. We are convinced that any business needs its wild ducks” (Soren Kierkegaard and Thomas J. Watson Jr.)
One who added this business part to Kierkegaard’s caution was IBM’s second chairman, Watson Jr.It turns out that keeping your mental youth depends on whether you keep your wild duck in your mind and you can practically release it.
The referring page is Nagamine & Mishima JC Accounting K.K.
