A Comparative Study of Accounting in Japan and Indonesia

本研究的目的是比较日本和印度尼西亚在会计/披露和会计/税务实践方面的法律框架。印尼目前正在采取“开放”政策，促进放松管制。在这几年里，进入印度尼西亚的外国投资急剧增加。一些印尼公司正在追求国际化。例如，Indosat现在在纽约证券交易所上市，另一家公司即将在东京证券交易所上市。3)税法、会计准则和公司法在1994年和1995年进行了改革。印尼的会计准则现在已达到国际水平。这与日本会计准则形成了有趣的对比，日本会计准则与国际会计准则（IAS）仍有很大不同。如上所述，印度尼西亚会计面向国际化/自由化，其会计标准已纳入国际会计准则。然而，在实践中，许多公司不能遵守书面会计准则。考虑到印尼的文化背景，我们或许可以看出，印尼企业并没有强烈的动机来严格遵守这些规定。如果印尼真的打算成为国际，它似乎有必要尝试改变传统的会计价值观，以协调会计实践与会计准则。这不是一件容易的事。因此，必须继续努力提高会计教育和注册会计师的素质，改变跨国公司的定位。这也给在印尼经营的日本企业带来了一个问题。他们应该遵守印尼的会计准则和税收法规，以便在长期内得到尊重。

The Puorpose of this research was to compare Japan and Indonesia in terms of legal framework of accounting/disclosue and accounting/tax practice.Indonesia is now taking the policy of "opening the door" by facilitating de-regulation. Foreign investment into Indonesia is drastically increasing during these few years. Some Indonesian companies are pursuing internationalization.For example, Indosat is now listed to the New York Stock Exchange and another company is going to be listed to Tokyo Stock Exchange soon.3) Tax regulations, accounting standards and company law were reformed in 1994 and 1995. Indonesian accounting standards are now at an international level.This shows an interesting contrast to Japanese accounting standards, which is still quite different from the International Accounting Standards (IAS).As indicated above, Indonesian accounting is oriented towards internationalization/liberalization, and its accounting standards have incorporated IAS.In practice however, great number of companies cannot comply with written accounting standards. Taking into account Indonesian cultural background, we may be able to indicate that Indonesian companies do not have strong motivation to rigorously follow these regulations.If Indonesia truly intends to become international, it seems to be necessary that it try to change the traditional accounting values in order to reconcile accounting practice with its accounting standards.This is not an easy task to cope with.It is thus imperative to continue various efforts to improve accounting education and the quality of certified public accountants, and to change the orientation of the multinational corporations.This also poses a problem to Japanese comanies operating in Indonesia. They are expected to comply with accounting standards and tax regulations of Indonesia so that they are respected in the long run.