An Empirical Research in Accounting Policy after the Japanese Bubble Economy

本文旨在考察日本企业选择会计方法的原因和动机，以及选择会计方法的过程，并提出其会计方法选择背后的经济和会计含义。为了构建研究假设，我们对日本和美国有关会计政策的论文进行了研究，发现1998年以前的研究假设存在一些问题。最后一年，即1998年，从1990年股灾年度和其后4年的1994年财务报表中，手工选取了企业持有证券和退休金准备金的会计处理方法，对日本企业的会计裁量行为进行了实证分析。虽然最后的实证检验还在进行中，但公司管理者被期望管理会计应计项目，即现金流量与报告收益之间的差额，并操纵报告收益，实证检验的结果支持盈余管理假说，即公司管理者进行了收入减少应计项目。除了提供证据表明，公司经理人管理盈余，这项研究的结果可能会被证明是有用的会计研究人员。

This paper aims to examine reasons and incentives for Japanese firms' choice in accounting methods and the process of it, and to propose the economic and accounting implication behind their accounting choice. To construct the research hypothesis, the Japanese and the U.S.papers related to accounting policies were explored and some problems in the existing hypotheses were found before the 1998 year. In the last year, namely 1998, accounting methods for securities held in the firm and allowances for retirement payment are hand-selected from the financial statements as for the stock crush year of 1990 and the four later year of 1994, and the accounting discretionary behavior of Japanese firms are descriptively analyzed. Although the final empirical test is ongoing, corporate manager are expected to manage the accounting accrual, that are the difference between cash flows and reported income numbers, and manipulate the reported income.The result of the empirical tests support the earnings management hypothesis suggesting that corporate managers make income-decreasing accruals. In addition to providing evidence that corporate managers manage earnings, the results of this study may prove useful to accounting researchers.