Research on the development of financial reporting practice of Japanese firms and the function of the Working Rules of Financial Statements in the Pre-World War II period

本研究的目的是：(i)探索在二战前日本工业企业的股东有效治理条件下，财务报告是如何实施的；（ii）通过检验18家化工企业采用的报告模式的实证数据，调查1934年发布的《财务报表工作规则》对财务报告实践没有重要影响的原因。研究表明，《工作规则》缺乏实际影响的原因并不像以前的研究所表明的那样仅仅是缺乏执行权，而是财务报告实践受到以下因素的影响：建立在未完成的管理与所有权分离基础上的极端隐瞒政策；日本化学工业新业务的形成；在20世纪20年代和30年代初，化学工业长期不景气。

The purpose of this study is (i) to explore how financial reporting was practiced under the condition of shareholders' effective governance which operated in Japanese industrial firms in the pre-WW2 period and (ii) to investigate reasons why the Working Rules for Financial Statements issued in 1934 had no important impact upon financial reporting practice by examining empirical data for the pattern of reporting adopted by 18 chemical firms. The study demonstrates that the reason for the absence of practical impact of the Working Rules was not simply the lack of enforcement power, as suggested in prior studies, but that financial reporting practice was influenced by : an extreme concealment policy founded on the unfinished separation of management from ownership ; the formation of the new business concerns in the Japanese chemical industry; and a prolonged industrial slump in the chemical industry during the 1920s and the early 1930s.