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The current functions of both financial and management accounting in Japan are analysed. The critical views of the functions of accounting that have been presented by Japanese researchers since the 1950s are traced. In these views, the contemporary functions of accounting are to accumulate capital through manipulation in financial disclosure in the relation of capital ownership, and to pursue monopolist profits by intensifying labour process and by reducing manufacturing costs in the relation of production. The current use of accounting policy changes by Japanese corporations is analysed in respect of the first of these relations, and just‐in‐time production systems and other methods of reducing manufacturing costs are examined in respect of the second relation with particular attention directed to the relationship between productive and accounting labour. Based on these considerations, some new perspectives are offered on the functions of accounting not only in the Japanese capitalist context, but in the context of capitalism generally.

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This paper introduces and appraises two new interpretations of accounting: accounting as a 'labour process' and accounting as the 'self-consciousness of capital'. These interpretations of accounting were presented by T. Miyosawa and A. Tanaka respectively in their attempts to bridge the gap in the recognition of the nature of accounting between the two main types of Japanese critical accounting theories: the 'capital movement approach' and the 'socio-political superstructure approach'. These interpretations are mainly based on the theory of labour and capital by K. Marx who regards the capitalist production as a unity of the labour process and the process of creating value, and capital as an organism that develops as if it were a natural living system. By applying these new interpretations, accounting can be regarded as an indispensable component of the living system, that is, not an external but an internal existence to the system. This way of thinking leads accounting researches to an effective analysis not only in financial accounting but also in management accounting: an analysis of the relationship between the function of accounting information and the efficiency and profitability of a production system such as the Toyota Production System.