Abstract This article focuses on the accounting aid for developing countries. The developing countries which constitute the majority in the world in both numbers and population are struggling to develop primary production to enable them to effectively utilize their resources, generate employment, and equitably distribute their wealth. The industrialization process in the United States and in Western Europe has been evolutionary in nature and has required several hundred years. During this time accounting, engineering, and other related professions have also developed through an evolutionary process both in terms of theory and procedures, and in terms of the number of people engaged in these professions. Some of the developing countries of the present day are attempting to avoid this long evolutionary process in their industrial development. By utilizing the organizational methods and technical knowledge they hope to achieve as much in terms of industrialization in a few decades as America and Western Europe

Abstract The shift in emphasis by the accounting profession from the statement of financial condition to the income statement, and more recently to a management approach has been associated with a rise in the relative importance of investor and manager groups and an increasing realization of the usefulness of quantitative data in making executive decisions. Accounting for the consumption of long-lived assets has been influenced by these changes in emphasis and this has led to considerable disagreement and confusion regarding certain problems related to depreciation. Many schemes have been advanced for transferring the expired cost of depreciable assets to operations. At one extreme a few businessmen have been influenced by the payout technique for budgeting capital items and advocate the immediate transferal of the entire cost upon incurrence to expense. The article laid the foundation for the development of a theory of depreciation with objectives reflecting the current emphasis in accounting. The theory is based upon recommended principles of economics and accounting and it satisfies the decision-making requirements of management.

Abstract With the development of the modern corporation, accounting reports have become more difficult to prepare and to interpret. Many of the problems are centered in that portion of the balance sheet identified as the net worth, proprietorship, or capital section. There are several explanations for the existence of these difficulties. One arises from the complexity of reporting the effect of such transactions as the issuance of shares, the payment of stock dividends, and the reacquisition and reassurance of shares, when ownership is diffused among different classes of stock each having special features. Another arises from the numerous and varied legal restrictions that directly or indirectly influence the reporting of corporate equities. The recent article by Professor Buttimer concerned with the statutory influence on accounting for treasure stock is an illustration of this problem.' It may be that accounting theory has not developed to the point necessary to define precisely the functions and objectives to he served by each item of information in the stockholders' equity section of the balance sheet. This is another explanation which may account for the wide variety of terminology used and the varied and often vague objectives attempted to be served.

Abstract Reviews the book "Financial Reporting in Japan," by Robert J. Ballon, Iwao Tomita and Hajime Usami.