Developments in the socio-economic and political spheres impact upon accounting disclosure
and corporate governance. In the context of globalisation, moves have been made
ostensibly to converge practices towards global standards, which on the face of it equate to
Anglo-American ways. Here, we focus on Japan in this context. We give particular attention
to pressure apparently placed upon Japan by the U.S. vis-à-vis bilateral state-level trade
negotiations – an under researched area – from the late 1980s. We critically interpret how
the Japanese Government has responded to such apparent pressure.