ABSTRACT
This chapter provides an objective and comprehensive overview of current management accounting practices in Japan. The Industrial Rationalization Council, formed by the Ministry of International Trade and Industry (MITI) in 1949, greatly influenced the development of Japanese management accounting practices. The process of planning and budgetary control involves setting a performance target, measuring performance, comparing performance against that target, computing the difference (variance) between measured performance and the target and taking action if necessary. The early use of information and communication technology (ICT) in Japan was the introduction of electronic data processing (EDP) and automatic data processing (ADP) in the 1950s. Hoshin kanri (policy deployment, hoshin planning, or simply hoshin) is a method of ensuring that the strategic goals drive progress and action at every level within that company. Balanced scorecards (BSC) is a framework for defining and communicating strategy, for translating strategy to operational targets and for measuring outputs of strategy implementation.
