ASBJ Hosts a Round-table Meeting with Stig Enevoldsen, EFRAG Chairman

On September 22, 2008, Accounting Standards Board of Japan (ASBJ) held a round-table discussion meeting at Palace Hotel in Tokyo, inviting Stig Enevoldsen, Chairman of the European Financial Reporting Advisory Group (EFRAG) and Paul Ebling, Technical Director of the EFRAG. The EFRAG is an organization responsible for providing advice to the European Commission on issues such as endorsement of IFRS. The main purpose of the meeting was to introduce the roles of the EFRAG and their recent activities to Japanese market constituents, and to exchange views with them. The meeting was joined by around 40 participants, including representatives from the Japan Institute of Certified Public Accountants, Financial Services Agency, and preparers and users of financial statements.

The meeting started with opening remarks by Ikuo Nishikawa, Chairman of the ASBJ, followed by Mr. Enevoldsen’s presentation, entitled “EU Financial Reporting”. In his speech, Mr. Enevoldsen explained about the roles that the EFRAG plays in the EU and their recent activities. He also revealed the EFRAG’s views regarding issues that accounting is confronted with in the recent financial crises, and the impact of the US SEC’s movement on the IASB or Europe, which are some of the timely topics.

The presentation was followed by a discussion with the participants, which was highly informative and meaningful with a variety of issues raised from the participants, including valuation regarding the process of IFRS introduction in Europe, the opinion-forming process within the EFRAG which consists of many member states, and the future action plans of the EFRAG.

(Scenes of the round table meeting)

Mr. Enevoldsen and Mr. Ebling also participated in a symposium held at Waseda University in Tokyo on September 24. During the panel discussion section of the symposium, they discussed with Mr. Toyoda, Senior Technical Manager of the ASBJ and other panelists, on revenue recognition among other issues.

(A scene of the symposium)