Cost accounting and cost management practices in Japanese small and medium-sized enterprises: Based on Questionnaire Survey

Abstract

　The purpose of this paper is to examine the current situation of the cost accounting and cost management practices in the Japanese SMEs based on the questionnaire surveys in the three industrial accumulation areas, Niigata Tsubame-Sanjou, Tokyo Ota-ku, and Higashi-Osaka.

　The primary results of analysis are as follows.

　- Many companies have introduced some cost accounting and/or cost management practices.

　- However, considerable number of companies haven’t introduced cost accounting and/or cost management practice even though they give “manufacturing cost reduction” and/or “company-wide cost management” as their management challenges.

　- A statistically significant relation is present between the state of implementation of cost accounting, and that of corporate budget. Considerable number of companies introducing some partial budgets, namely, business units, products/services and/or sections level ones as well as corporate-level one have introduced the product/service level cost accounting as well as one for preparing financial statements.

　- A statistically significant relation is present between the state of implementation of cost management, and that of cost accounting. Considerable number of companies haven’t introducing any cost management have introduced only the cost accounting for preparing financial statements.