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The purpose of this study is to measure the technical efficiency of Japanese national universities over the period 2010–2016. In addition, the authors also sought to identify the determinants of efficiency, especially those amenable to public policy intervention.

First, the authors ran a global intertemporal data envelopment analysis to understand the trends in efficiency for national universities over the relevant period. Following this, the authors conducted a second-stage regression using a double-bootstrapped truncated regression model to identify the possible determinants of efficiency.

The authors found no evidence to suggest that technical efficiency of national universities systematically decreased or increased in response to either structural reform or a reduction to government grants. Moreover, the share of government grants, the size of universities and disciplines of study offered by the universities were statistically significant determinants of efficiency.

The study results suggest that efficacious public policy remedies might include inter alia measures to reduce the reliance on public funding, efforts to attract more foreign students, the execution of mergers among small universities and consolidation of inefficient departments.

This research fills an important gap in the scholarly literature with respect to Japanese national universities and identifies possible determinants to efficiency, which are amenable to remedial public policy interventions.

This paper aims to examine the role of the Japanese state in the development of budgets within “special companies” in the transportation sector between 1928 and 1945.

Using evidence contained in the archives of “closedown institutions” this paper examines the role of the state in determining the use of budgets within Japan Air Transport (1928‐1938) and Japan Airways (1938‐1945). The paper adopts the lens of new institutional sociology to examine the changes in the use of budgets effected when Japan Airways succeeded Japan Air Transport.

Prior to 1938, although subject to the need to provide budget statements to the government, the budget systems operated by special companies within the Japanese transportation sector were largely utilised for the purpose of legitimising receipt of government subsidies. Following the establishment of Japan Airways in 1938, however, an increasing use of the budget system as a control mechanism is observed. It is found that a key role in this coercive process was played by the Aviation Bureau of the Ministry of Communications, reflecting changes not only in its own status but also the financial pressures exerted on the Japanese government during the Second Sino‐Japanese War from 1937 and the Pacific War from 1941.

This paper examines the development of the use of budgets at a time, the interwar period, which is considered critical to the development of budgets for purposes of control. By doing this within a context (special companies) and within a geographical space (Japan) which has not previously been analyzed by accounting historians, this study helps to add to the material available for conducting comparative international accounting research. Furthermore, by using the lens of new institutional sociology, this study provides an in‐depth insight into how, and under what conditions, the degree of decoupling between formal policies and actual practices can vary over time depending on the extent of coercive pressures.

The purpose of this paper is to locate the role of local standard setters in institutional complexity, where multiple sources of pressure for change and continuity coexist. The existing research does not fully explore this since it tends to illustrate the way in which a particular interpretation concerning certain accounting standards prevails over time (Archel et al., 2011; Murphy and O’Connell, 2013; Pelger, 2016; Young, 2014).

It empirically examines and critiques the Japanese experience through the concepts of institutional complexity and translation that specify the relationship between the name and types of practice of accounting standards in the local context (Czarniawska and Sevón, 1996, 2005; Erlingsdóttfr and Lindberg, 2005; Røvik, 2016; Sahlin and Wedlin, 2008). Data sources are texts produced (between 2001 and 2015) by the local accounting standard setter and relevant organisations that represent firms, the certified public accountants and regulatory agency, respectively.

The local accounting standard setter in Japan was exposed to competing pressures between change and maintenance, which was translated by the standard setter in Japan. Consequently, the translation led to an “explosion” of local accounting standards (“pure” International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS), Japanese Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (GAAP), modified IFRS and US GAAP).

This paper is the first attempt to systematically examine the role of a local standard setter under institutional complexity. It illustrates how institutional complexity is turned into divergent outcomes against the assumption of previous research that indicates multiple interpretations of particular accounting standards finally merging into a specific one.

The purpose of this paper is to provide an understanding of the “Kyocera approach” to business, i.e. the relationship between the Kyocera philosophy, the amoeba management system (AMS) and the associated management accounting system.

Utilising a variety of secondary sources, including semi-autobiographical works written by Inamori, the architect of AMS, the authors examine in detail the links between the underlying Kyocera philosophy and the management and accounting principles derived therefrom. These sources are used to examine the historical origins of these principles, their influence on both the AMS and the management accounting system, and how these have developed over time.

Both the AMS and the associated management accounting system can be shown to contain a mixture of influences, including traditional Asian/Japanese factors, but also Inamori/Kyocera-specific factors linked to Inamori's underlying philosophical approach to life and specific life experiences encountered by him. This suggests that while the Kyocera approach may be applicable more widely in Japan or Asia, outside of this context, the conflicts between Western and Asian cultures, although not necessarily insurmountable, may provide barriers leading to incomplete applications of the Kyocera approach

This study adds to the understanding of the interrelationship between management philosophy and management accounting practices, and the ability of individuals to determine culture within organisations. It illustrates the importance of historical research in obtaining a detailed understanding of the philosophical, cultural and religious underpinnings of current management and accounting practices.