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：（1）探讨在股东有效治理的条件下，日本工业企业在第二次世界大战前是如何进行财务报告的;通过考察1934年颁布的《财务报表工作规则》对财务报告实践没有重大影响的原因，化学公司。研究表明，《作业规则》没有产生实际影响的原因并不像以往的研究所认为的那样仅仅是缺乏执行力，而是受到了以下因素的影响：建立在经营权与所有权尚未完全分离基础上的极端隐瞒政策;以及20世纪20年代和30年代初化学工业的长期工业衰退。

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.