What's New (Aug, 2008)

August 22,2008

On July 9, 2008, JICPA issued, "Amendment of Auditing and Assurance Practice Committee Statement No. 76, Audit Treatment concerning Subsequent Events". This revision resulted from the review of this Practical Guideline in response to the introduction of quarterly financial reporting requirement under the Financial Instruments and Exchange Act.
This document is available in Japanese only.

August 22,2008

On July 9, 2008, JICPA published an overview of the Quality Control Committee's review of quality control for the year ended March 31, 2008.
The JICPA has performed quality control reviews for audit firms that audit listed companies and certain large companies as prescribed by the CPA Act. By the end of the last fiscal year, 131 audit firms were reviewed, out of 395 firms subject to quality control review by JICPA. In addition, as the listed company audit firm registration system started this year, JICPA executed follow-up reviews to 104 firms that audit listed companies though they were not in the normal review cycle.
As a result of these, the implementations to the past recommendations for improvements were confirmed of all firms that audit listed companies. In addition, measures under the listed company audit firm registration system were executed to the audit firms whose implementation was considered remarkably insufficient.
An English translation of this report will be available soon.

August 22,2008

On July 17, 2008, JICPA held the 29th JICPA Annual Conference at the Nagoya Marriott Associa Hotel. The conference was attended by over 1,200 JICPA members, and many others from around the country, with interest in financial reporting. Eight concurrent sessions were provided including "Research about 'material weakness' in Management Assessment and Audit of Internal Control over Financial Reporting"; "ASBJ' s efforts in international convergence of accounting standards"; and   "Recent developments of IFRS in various countries, and Japan's response". The key conference speech was given by Mr. Hiroshi Okuda, former Chairman and Representative Director, and Senior Advisor of Toyota Motor Corporation.

August 22,2008

On July 9, 2008, JICPA held the 42nd Annual General Assembly in the Imperial Hotel, Tokyo.
The opening speeches were given by Mr. Yoshimi Watanabe, Financial Services Minister, and Mr. Atsushi Saito, President & CEO of the Tokyo Stock Exchange Group. Members at the General Assembly approved the draft financial statements for the 42nd fiscal year, as well as the business plan and budget for the 43rd fiscal year. In addition, amendments were made to the Continuing Professional Education System (CPE). Instead of the requirement to obtain annually at least 40 CPE credits, the revised CPE rules call for CPAs to obtain 120 CPE credits during a three years period (with a minimum annual requirement of 20 CPE credits). This amendment intends to provide members with more flexibility to take CPE credits giving consideration to their own business schedule.

August 22,2008

On July 8, 2008, JICPA held a ceremony commemorating the 60th anniversary of the enactment of the CPA Act, and the establishment of the CPA profession in Japan. Over 1,200 JICPA members attended this ceremony. The event included a video presentation looking back on the last decade with full interviews of former JICPA presidents and other distinguished people.

August 1,2008

JICPA has completed the English translation of Auditing and Assurance Committee Statement No. 82 "Practical Guidance for Audits of Internal Control over Financial Reporting", which was issued on October 24, 2007.
The original texts of the statement are prepared in the Japanese language (available at http://www.hp.jicpa.or.jp/specialized_field/82.html), and this translation is to be used solely as reference material to aid in the understanding of this statement. Therefore, for all purposes including practical application of the statement, users should consult the original Japanese texts.
The provisional translation of Auditing and Assurance Committee Statement No. 82 can be obtained at http://www.hp.jicpa.or.jp/specialized_field/files/2-8-82-2-20080801.pdf