October 16, 2007

Public Consultation on
''Notification Requirement for Foreign Audit Firms''
as set out in the Proposed Cabinet Office Ordinance of
the Certified Public Accountants Law

The Financial Services Agency recently published the proposal for Cabinet Orders and Cabinet Office Ordinances to implement revised Certified Public Accountants Law etc. which were passed by the Diet in June 2007 and are expected to take effect in April 2008. The entire Proposed Cabinet Orders and the Cabinet Office Ordinances are now on public consultation and available in Japanese on the Financial Services Agency's website.

The revision of the Law includes measures (a) to enhance the quality control, governance, and disclosure of audit firms, (b) to reinforce the independence of auditors, and (3) to strengthen oversight on auditors. The revision also includes measures to introduce oversight on foreign audit firms. In this context, the Financial Services Agency hereby provides English translation of articles related to the Notification Requirement for Foreign Audit Firms (Article 83-89 of the Proposed Cabinet Office Ordinance) to further facilitate comments from the public.

For the sake of convenience, the summary of the Notification Requirement is shown in Appendix A and the related provisions of Certified Public Accountants Law etc. are shown in Appendix B. However, the Financial Services Agency invites comments only on the Proposed Cabinet Office Ordinance.

Comments should reach us by October 29, 2007.

Comments may be sent by post, fax, or e-mail, and should be accompanied by the name of the person and/or organization and contact information, including postal address of the person and/or organization. Comments by phone are not accepted.

Please note that the Financial Services Agency will not respond to any individual respondent in person.

• Proposed Cabinet Office Ordinance of Certified Public Accountants Law (PDF:55KB)
• Appendix A Notification Requirement Requirement for for Foreign Audit Firms under the Foreign Audit Firms under the Revised Japanese CPA Law (PDF:259KB)
• Appendix B Revised Certified Public Accountants Law etc. (PDF:45KB)