Support of IFRSs by Japanese government continues
06 Jun 2016
On 2 June, the Cabinet in Japan adopted a revised 'Japan Revitalisation Strategy 2016' summarising the nation's growth strategy and policy. Among many other measures IFRSs are included in the document.
On IFRSs, the document makes it clear once again that cabinet intends to promote the voluntary adoption of IFRSs by sharing experience and knowledge of IFRS. The document also refers explicitly to two areas where IFRSs may be improved from Japan's perspective, namely goodwill and recycling.
The document also expresses support for accelerating the efforts by the ASBJ to develop a new Japanese revenue standard that is likely to be modeled on IFRS 15 Revenue from Contracts with Customers.
The new revitalisation strategy does not expressly urge Japanese companies to adpt IFRSs. However, the governments's consistent support of IFRSs sends very encouraging signals, and the planned convergence of the Japanese revenue standard with IFRS 15 might mean that another obstacle to switching to IFRSs will be removed.
The new revitalisation strategy is available on the Japanese government's website in two forms:
- Outline of the general strategy (IFRSs not especially mentioned) in English
- Full document in Japanese
