Chair and Vice-chair of EFRAG Visit Japan
In March 2010, Stig Enevoldsen, Chairman of European Financial Reporting Advisory Group (EFRAG), Françoise Flores, current vice-chair and appointed next chair of EFRAG (starting from 1 April 2010), and Mario Abela, Acting Secretariat Director and Research Director of EFRAG director, visited Japan to exchange views with representatives of the Accounting Standards Board of Japan (ASBJ).
In a meeting held on 8 March at the ASBJ office, ASBJ explained its recent activities, including Asian and Oceanian Standard-Setters Group (AOSSG), and EFRAG provided its activity updates and overview regarding the endorsement process in Europe. This was followed by summary of international trends in global accounting standards particularly focused on IASB projects update, explanation of IFRS adoption issues in light of European experience, and discussions on the following IASB projects;
- Financial Instruments: recognition and measurement
- Financial Statement Presentation
- Liabilities: amendments to IAS 37
- IFRS for Small and Medium-sized Entities
Ms. Flores also expressed her hope as next chair and indicated to reinforce ties between EFRAG and Japan.
On the following day, 9 March, ASBJ open seminar titled “How to address IFRS implementation – Japan’s efforts towards the adoption of IFRS, building on the European experience” was held at Tokyo Conference Center, attracting about five hundreds of audience. The seminar was intended to learn from EU experience in order to facilitate IFRS adoption in Japan, as well as consider and recognize further the challenges which Japan may face in adoption and the possible reactions to them. The topics covered in the seminar were as follows;
| Seminar Topics: | Presented by: |
|---|---|
| European approach to IFRS – through EFRAG activities | Stig Enevoldsen, EFRAG Chairman Françoise Flores, EFRAG Vice-chair |
| Japan Update on IFRS – ASBJ activities | Ikuo Nishikawa, ASBJ Chairman |
| Application of IFRS in Japan – Activities of the IFRS Council of Japan | Noriaki Shimazaki, Chairman of the International Affairs Committee, the IFRS Council of Japan |
| Panel Discussion: | Panelists: |
| Implications out of the European experience and supplemental future actions to be taken in Japan |
|
After the seminar session, a panel discussion was held participated by the seminar presenters, Sei-ichi Koneko, a director of the Securities Analyst Association of Japan (SAAJ), and Atsu Kato, ASBJ full-time board member. The panel discussion addressed the EU endorsement mechanism for IFRS, including IFRS 9: Financial Instruments and issues related to adoption of “principle-based” IFRS, encouraging active discussions. We hope that the seminar promotes further understanding the activities of EFRAG which will take a more significant role in the accounting in Europe, led by the next chair Ms. Flores, as well as developments around the application of IFRS.
ASBJ and EFRAG continue to exchange their views to contribute the development of high- quality accounting standards in the IASB and to implement those standards in their jurisdictions.