FINANCIAL MANAGEMENT IN LARGE JAPANESE COMPANIES

Abstract

Finance and accounting divisions as well as general affairs divisions were common in pre-war
Japanese companies. They operated as treasury and administrative departments in the United
States. Although cost and management accounting and control spread from the US to Japan
as a way to increase internal control after the Second World War, it was not diffused among
Japanese companies in its original form. Most of the employees in the finance and accounting
divisions were university graduates from business or economics faculties who were trained
on the job within the divisions.