Increased pressures within supply chains, coupled with new pressures from capital
markets are forcing firms to adopt Japanese cost management systems (Hopper et al.
1999). Japanese manufacturers acknowledge that standard financial measures
are still vital in running a lean production system, but they have tailored their
cost management systems to support target costing methods by separating cost
management from cost accounting. In Japanese firms, cost management is proactive
in planning, managing, and reducing costs, as opposed to the historical backward
looking focus of cost accounting (Berliner et al. 1986). As Robin Cooper states in his
study of Japanese manufacturing, ‘only by sharing the relevant cost information
could management expect the workers to be able to most effectively achieve cost
reduction by setting and committing to sensible targets’ (Cooper 1995). In other
words, employees must have access to related cost data to meet set targets.