In this article we discuss methodological features of management accounting research in Japan. Using the framework developed by Van der Stede et al. (2005), we assess Japanese cases of survey research. Our supplementary analysis shows a status quo of Japanese survey studies over last two decades. We assess the quality of mail surveys conducted by Japanese researchers. Compared to the result reported by Van der Stede et al. (2005), survey studies in Japan turn out to be differentiated specifically on methodology. That is, Japanese researchers have tendency to take survey methods not to test theories but to discover features of a given population. Descriptive features make them to pay less attention to the theory consistency in their research. We point out reasons to make them unique and provide future suggestions on empirical management accounting research.

It has been considered that firms' major objective is value creation and management's major role is managing activities to create value. Performance measures relevant for value creation are indispensable because management can use them to set measurable goals of value creation, to monitor the value creating activities and to evaluate the performance in terms of the value creation. Much attention has been paid to an economic profit as a performance measure relevant for value creation. Usefulness of the economic profit has been often explained in terms of the consistency with theoretical model of the firms' value, which is the sum of discounted future free cash flow. It is still unclear, however, what the economic profit itself measures, what kind of information the economic profit generates. The purpose of this paper is to clarify the role of economic profit in the context of management for value creation by providing clear understanding of what is measured by the economic profit.

This study investigates whether Japanese firms manage their book income in response to changes in the statutory rate of corporate income taxes. Prior studies examine book income or current accruals as the proxy for taxable income shifting. However, in the U.S., there are few direct links between taxable income and book income, which in turn might introduce significant errors into earnings management measures. Although we also focus on accounting accruals, the link between the two incomes in Japan is much more explicit, which enables us to examine taxable income shifting more directly. We find that there are significantly negative discretionary accruals for the years immediately preceding a tax rate reduction. These results show that Japanese firms manage their book income to minimize tax costs. This suggests that conforming the two incomes does not necessarily eliminate tax-induced earnings management, and therefore has very important implications for the recent debate over book-tax conformity.

Interests in management accounting have increased in healthcare sector. For effective management accounting, medical services must be defined as limited kinds of units with homogeneity of resource consumption although it has been very difficult in healthcare traditionally. Regarding aggregated services for acute inpatients, DPCs (Diagnosis Procedure Combinations) have been developed and used in recent years. But regarding detail services as components of DPC, appropriateness of classifications (definitions of service units) for purposes have not been verified although the classifications have been used for a long time. In this study, the classification of clinical examinations on the current payment system is verified because it is shared in hospitals and very important for management. It is revealed there is no homogeneity in terms of labor cost and material cost, therefore there is no appropriateness for purposes. Further study on classification of clinical examinations with relevance for management is required for effective management accounting in healthcare sector.