This book deals with the systems of cost reduction that originated in Japan. These are mostly new systems that did not exist in western practices before they were utilized in Japan. The book also presents the Japanese ways of carrying out the globally popular cost reduction practices.(1) It describes the strategic cost management conducted by top management through alliances between companies and/or between government and industry.(2) It shows the functional cost reduction systems along the various phases of the product life cycle, as follows: R&D ? Product development ? Manufacturing ? Administration and indirect operations(3) It conducts some humanistic or behavioral aspects of Japanese cost reduction systems.

This book sheds light on the interpenetration process between practice and theory of "Japanese management accounting" by using historical methods. Japanese management accounting can be characterized by the fact that it not only emphasizes the management of entities, such as JIT, and kaizen activities both in the company but also suppliers.

Some of Japan's foremost management accounting researchers describe the strategic and practical approaches the Japanese take toward management and manufacturing, providing a cross-section of management accounting practices developed by Japanese companies, large and small. Case studies and illustrations provide for comparison to US practices. Annotation copyrighted by Book News, Inc., Portland, OR

This book investigates how different types of Japanese management systems are able to motivate stakeholders, including employees, top management, stockholders, customers and transaction partners, to participate actively in the organizational behavior that improves business performance. The various systems motivating stakeholders are examined in five sections: Strategy and Business Restructuring for Enhancing the Business Value; Management Control Systems and Budgeting; Cost Management; Management Accounting for Supply Chain and Shared Services; and Process Management. Sample Chapter(s). Part 1:1: How Japanese Legal and Accounting Rules Can Facilitate Business Group Restructuring (671 KB). Contents: Strategy and Business Restructuring to Enhancing Business Value: How Japanese Legal and Accounting Rules Can Facilitate Business Group Restructuring (Y Monden & Y Monden); Changes in the Concept of Capital and Their Effects on Economic Profit in Japan (S Hiraoka); Management Control Systems and Budgeting: Analysis of the Influence of Performance-Based Systems on Japanese Management Control (E Yokota); Questionnaire Survey on the International Financial Control Affecting the Responsibility Accounting of Overseas Subsidiaries (M Tomo); Cost Management: The Role of OC Hidden CostOCO in Cost Management (S Kon); Target Costing Brings Another Competitive Edge: Creation of Capacity Surplus through Information Capital Readiness by IT (Y Ogushi); Management Accounting for Supply Chain and Shared Services: Allocation of Joint Profit among Supply Chain Companies: Application of Core Theory (M Imabayashi); Characteristics of Japanese Shared Service Centers (T Sonoda); Process Management: Chain Effect among Objectives under Management by Objectives (N Ogura & S Nibuya); The Framework of Business Process Management and Dell Computers (G Lee & N Yamaguchi); and other papers. Readership: University students, researchers, and professionals and practitioners in business and management fields."

This book talks about five Japanese buisness practices and four engineering tools that make their accounting techniques work.

In the 1990s, Japanese companies experienced a deflationary recession called the “lost ten years”. To survive the recession, they looked for solutions in the kaikaku (innovative reforms) of business management, organizations and technology, whilst struggling to regain their global competitiveness. Successful companies all had one thing in common — they applied a new project management paradigm which this book refers to as Kaikaku Project Management (KPM).This book provides a comprehensive look at the features of KPM, including its emphasis on creativity and teamwork, its broader “open value system” as opposed to a “closed technical system”, its close links with corporate strategy and human resource development, and the support infrastructure needed for advancing KPM. Chapters cover both the theory and practice of KPM, citing cases of information and communications technology (ICT) and pharmaceutical companies, among others. KPM holds special relevance today as global competition is increasingly reducing the lifecycle of organizations. Managers will find in KPM not only a way to survive the shake-up, but also a framework of value creation for the next generation.

From an historical perspective, management accounting is a very recent phenomenon (see Johnson & Kaplan, 1987) and is culturally grounded in a few old-industrialized countries, in Europe: Germany, United-Kingdom, France, but also in Japan and in the United-States. Notwithstanding the cultural dominance of English-speaking countries on management, non-English speaking countries keep strong institutional and cultural roots that still influence their ways of managing companies. This is the case when looking at management accounting and more especially at cost accounting and cost management practices (now cost accounting/management). This paper, based on contingency and institutional frameworks, explores what are the similarities and differences of Japanese and French cost accounting/management. The first part describes the theoretical background, the second part presents the Japanese context, the third part the French one and the fourth part discusses the question. The historical, institutional and cultural backgrounds of the two countries are reviewed, focusing on cost accounting / management with a view on target costing.Through a comparative approach, specific French and Japanese ways of managing the costs are put in evidence. The research shows that the attitude towards target costing and the specific practices of cost accounting/management observed in France and Japan highlight the differences and similarities between the two countries. Both countries are also influenced by the Anglo-Saxon practices, and evidences of convergence become apparent.