iTJAR EDITORIAL POLICYACCOUNTING ENCOUNTERS OF THE TJAR KIND
Accounting theory has taken two distinct approaches: one supports understanding ofenvironment-specific local accounting institutions in various economies, while the othergeneralizes American and West European accounting institutions across the world. It is easy,
albeit costly, to overlook this co-existence of two kinds of theory in the rush to world-wide
convergence or integration of accounting. Consideration and comparison of the two may allow us
to carefully explore the foundations of the arguments for convergence. However, such exploration
requires accounting scholars to observe, examine, evaluate, and critique the proposed systems andalternatives of which convergence itself is a salient element.
Encounters among cultures since the medieval times have created some commonalities but
have not yielded a universal culture. Whether economic encounters among disparate socialsystems will yield, or even benefit from, a single system of accounting remains open. It is our hopethat The Japanese Accounting Review can serve as a forum for accounting scholars across theworld to observe, analyze, reflect, and report on encounters between the Western and othersystem of accounting. The obvious, but far too often neglected, recognition of this duality is acentral theme of TJAR. The TJAR website states:
This new English-language journal, The Japanese Accounting Review, aims to present theworld with quality research on diverse themes relating to accounting, thereby helping
improve the economic welfare of societies around the world through better accounting
systems. We welcome submissions, which will be judged solely on the basis of quality of
their contributions, not on the status of the hypothesis, methodology, or the author.
Even the so-called capitalist societies differ in their stage of development, and may take very
different paths employing quite different institutions. If internationalization is interpreted toassume that all these societies and their paths converge, there is little evidence in support.
Accounting scholarship could focus on seeking a critical understanding of the current diversity,and evaluating alternatives for the future, without becoming a prematurely prescriptive
cheerleader for convergence. TJAR aims to help serve this function.
While the pages of TJAR are open to empirical examination of whether the theories
originating in the West are robust enough to afford us a better understanding of other economies,
they also welcome alternative theories, and their empirical scrutiny, that arise from institutions
specific to the other economies. The current controversy in Japan about the adoption of IFRS is agood example of a subject for such studies. Development of theories, and analyses of data relevant
to cross-economy encounters are important goals of TJAR.
December, 2014

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TJAR EDITORIAL NOTE
The board of editors is pleased to review a large number of papers, submissions of which
continue to increase, year on year. As a result of the reviewing efforts of associate editors, we arealso privileged to publish three papers in the Fourth Volume of TJAR for 2014.
The first paper is concerned with auditing issues. With the aid of the concept of Belief
Function, it re-examines conventional auditing procedures, reclassifies them into three stages,
and finally presents the specific contents of each new stage. Then, based on a proposed new
auditing procedure under the current standards, it revalidates a past auditing incident (specifically,the Olympus Affair). This leads to the conclusion that the existence of fraud in the incident canbe noted with greater plausibility. This is an extremely ambitious paper.
Experimental accounting is the subject of the second paper. It finds that there is a tendency
for individuals (workers) who are given detailed information about production to accept theirbusiness organization’s objectives and to endure their own low rates of remuneration, ascompared with those who do not have such information. It also finds that, in production sectors
with higher success prospects, individuals (workers) ask for higher pay while those in low successsectors demand only relatively low rates of remuneration.
The third paper addresses creation of accounting information in Japan using eXtensible
Business Reporting Language (XBRL). For the first time, anywhere, this paper empiricallyclarifies the impact of XBRL on the information environment in Japan. As you may know,
XBRL was specified as a Japan Industrial Standard in July 2005 and began to be available fromthe late 2000s. Consequently, this paper evaluated if and how the introduction of XBRL has
specifically affected the information environment in Japan from the perspectives of event returns
volatility, absolute cumulative abnormal returns, changes in standard deviation of returns, andabnormal bid-ask spread. It reports that improvement effects can be observed from theseperspectives.
I believe that these three stimulating papers will play pivotal roles in discussion of theirrespective areas of interest.
December, 2014
HIDETOSHI YAMAJI
The Japanese Accounting Review, Editor in chief