1. Accounting(The development of accounting standards for revenue recognition.)
The Accounting Standards Board of Japan (ASBJ) deliberated about the development of accounting standard for revenue recognition after a private discussion regarding the operation of the board on March 6th, 2015. The secretariat suggested that the discussion about the development of revenue recognition standards based on IFRS NO.15 in Japan will be undertaken in order to raise the quality and international consistency of Japanese accounting standards and so as to provide more useful information for decision-making by investors and also because it is considered important in terms of aiming to maintain the structure of accounting standards.(Souce:“Keiei Zaimu Magazine”No.3205)
2. Taxation (The repeal of Japanese residency requirements for all representative directors.)
The Ministry of Justice announced that it is allowing domestic companies to register their incorporation without having resident representative directors in Japan as of March 16th, 2015 (from the website of the Ministry of Justice).Henceforth this will enable companies to be incorporated in Japan even if the representative directors are all non-residents. However, in the case of branches of foreign companies, there needs to be a representative director with Japanese residency.
3. Labor Management(Mandatory Stress Tests. (effective December 2015))
Due to the partial amendment of the Industrial Safety and Health Act, employers will be required to provide periodic mental health examinations (stress tests) for their employees effective as of December 2015. The stress test is conducted by a medical doctor or a public health nurse so that an employer can understand the degree of each employee’s mental burden. Following the stress tests, the employer will be required to provide a face-to-to-face guidance session conducted by a medical doctor at the requests of the employees who had the stress tests.Where necessary, the employer must hear the opinion of a medical doctor and take appropriate operational actions such as changing the duties or reducing the working hours of the employee.For business entities with less than 50 employees, this new policy will be a “best-effort obligation” for the time being.(The Act for Partial Revision of the Industrial Safety and Health Act, Act No. 82 of 2014.)
4. This Week’s Words of Wisdom(Books are an asset for people）
Books are the carriers of civilization. Without books, history is silent, literature dumb, science crippled, thought and speculation at a standstill.(Barbara Tuchman, Historian/Source: 100 words in the world)
I suppose that the more people obtain information from their smart phones, the less people read books on the train these days. That is obvious from the decrease in the number of bookstores. I have no idea if reading words on a smart phone’s screen and from a book have the same influence on people. But from my personal experience, when a sentence from a technical book or piece of literature makes me think deeply, it stays in my mind longer when I can highlight or annotate it in a book.
The referring page is Nagamine & Mishima JC Accounting K.K.
