The current value-based balance sheet in the context of east Asian colonial management: the case of the Oriental Colonization Company

Abstract

Drawing on the reports of accounts submitted by the Oriental Colonization Company (Toyo Takushoku Kabushiki Kaisha) to the Ministry of Finance, this study examines the role of the current value-based balance sheet prepared by the company in the context of the east Asian colonial management it carried out on behalf of the Japanese government. The current value-based balance sheet was prepared and submitted to the Ministry of Finance in order to show the company's financial position in the best possible light. This study demonstrates that the accounting techniques initially used for colonial management in distant locations came, at a later stage, to be extended, through attaching an additional statement (the current value-based balance sheet), in a manner which attempted to influence the decision making of relevant parties in the home country, in particular, to promote the company's own interest rather than the national interest in maintaining – and if possible enhancing – colonial management, which the special company had been originally created to handle.