What's New (Apr, 2016)

April 13,2016

On April 11, 2016, JICPA named Aiko Sekine as the Chairman and President for 2016-2019 during the meeting of incoming Council members.

Aiko Sekine who currently serves as one of the Deputy Presidents of JICPA and who is also a partner at PricewaterhouseCoopers Aarata in Japan, is the first female Chairman and President to serve in the JICPA office. She will succeed Kimitaka Mori, effective July 25, 2016, at the 50th annual general meeting.

She served as a member of International Ethics Standard Board for Accountant (IESBA) from 2008 to 2010, and is currently a member of Accounting Standards Board of Japan and Business Accounting Council of Financial Services Agency in Japan.

The appointment of deputy presidents and executive board members for 2016-2019 will be made in July.

April 4,2016

JICPA published, on March 31, 2016, the results of extraordinary quality control reviews conducted following a corporate scandal of a certain listed company to all 156 firms registered under the listed company audit firms registry.

These reviews were conducted to examine whether the registered firms have attained appropriate structure to address specific issues and considerations that need to be attended to during audit, as communicated in the Chairman and President Statement issued on January 27, 2016, and provide instructions, as necessary, for further enhancement to uphold public trust in CPA audits.

Although the reviews did not find firms with critical issues which may require a formal improvement mandate from JICPA, during the reviews of audit working papers of 59 engagements of top 11 firms, there were some suggestions in areas such as audits of accounting estimates, identification and analysis of risks during risk assessment, risks of management override of internal controls, appropriate discharge of professional skepticism and engagement quality control reviews. They will be addressed by each firm for further improvements in future.

Given the gravity of the impact that the recent series of corporate scandals may have on the public trust in capital markets and confidence in audit, JICPA is determined to take immediate actions on the items proposed in the recommendation issued previously by the Advisory Council on the Systems of Accounting and Auditing under Financial Services Agency of Japan. As part of the effort to enhance self-regulatory functions, JICPA is currently undertaking measures to enhance its quality control review structure and procedures, and to make training courses for fraud case studies mandatory for all members, in addition to other necessary initiatives to improve the auditing system for further ensuring public trust in capital markets.