Abstract
The paper presents a comparative study of the competitiveness of U.S. and Japanese companies up to 1990 as viewed from the standpoint of management accounting, followed by a discussion of changes in the management according in the two countries since 1990. Traditional accounting practices in Japanese companies can be characterized as indefinite, customer-oriented, team-oriented, and subject to non-financial factors, while the American practice is rather logical, individual-oriented and shareholder-oriented. However, considerable changes in these characteristics are observed since 1990: either country tends to adopt some of the traditional features of the other.
