Independence in Appearance of the CPAs Expected in the Market-oriented Economy

本研究题为“金融界对注册会计师独立性的实证研究”，目的是要找出影响金融界对审计师独立性的关键因素。为此目的，研究小组提出了表面独立性的可操作性定义，即独立审计师在多大程度上不受任何可能使感兴趣的人相信审计师事实上不独立和/或他们受到被审计公司管理层的压力或干预的因素的影响。我们初步确定了13个潜在因素，如专业能力、诚意和坚强的意愿、审计事务所内部的系统性审计过程、审计事务所内部负责合伙人和工作人员的轮换、联合国际会计师协会的自律、审计师的轮换、监管机构的自律、监管机构的诉讼程序、从Regu…跳伞的黄金更多的中介机构，会计准则的坚定性和有效性，税收法规对会计准则的影响，日本会计准则作为社会规范的地位，审计公司之间的竞争，以及参与MAS服务。这些因素分为三组：个人/组织因素、环境/制度因素和注册会计师服务因素。13,301份问卷邮寄给行政主管、法定审计师、会计和财务经理、内部审计师(负责人)、商业记者、会计学教授、管理学教授、商法教授、注册税务专家、财务分析师和证券市场人士。共收到5,034份回复(38%)。经5%显著水平的多元回归分析，受访者认同的主要独立影响因素为“诚意及意志坚定”、“日本国际会计准则协会的自律”、“日本会计准则的社会规范地位”、“审计事务所内部的系统性审计程序”。较少

The purpose of our research entitled "An Empirical Study of the CPAs' independence perceived by the financial community" is to identify crucial factors which are expected to influence the auditors' independence perceived by the financial community. For that purpose, the study group presented an operational definition of the independence in appearance as the degree to which independent auditors are free from any factors which may cause the interested persons to believe that the auditors are not independent in fact and/or that they are subject to the pressure or intervention by management of the company under audit.We tentatively identified 13 potential factors such as professional ability, sincerity and strong will, systematic audit process within the audit firm, rotation of partners and staff in charge within the audit firm, self-regulation of the JICPA, rotation of auditors, "gyosei-shido" by the regulatory agency, proceedings by the regulatory agency, golden parachuting from the regu … More latory agency, firmness and effectiveness of accounting standards, influence by tax regulations over accounting standards, the status as a social norm of accounting standards in Japan, competition among audit firms, and involvement with MAS services. These factors are categorized into three groups; personal/organizational factors, environmental/institutional factors, and CPA services factors.13,301 questionnaires were mailed to executive officers, statutory auditors, accounting and financial manager, internal auditors (head), business journalists, accounting professors, management professors, commercial law professors, Certified tax experts, financial analysts, and securities market people. 5,034 responses were received (38%). As the result of the multivariate regression analysis with the significance level of 5%, it is shown that major independence-influencing factors which the respondents have recognized are "sincerity and strong will," "self-regulation of the JICPA, " "the status as a social norm of accounting standards in Japan, " "systematic audit process within audit firms. " Less