The use of accounting information for factory closure and income creation: the case of the South Seas Development Company, 1937–1944

ABSTRACT This study presents an additional important case clarifying the role of accounting in reconciling the dilemma faced by Japanese special companies in choosing between pursuing profits as a private entity and responding to the national interest under the conditions of the Second World War. The focus is placed on the transformations that occurred in the accounting practices adopted by the South Seas Development Company (SSDC), a special company heavily committed to Japan’s territory management in Micronesia during the inter-war period. The study demonstrates that the SSDC’s management initially used accounting information, such as segment profitability, to make economic decisions for the purpose of selecting its business centres, in response to the ‘South Construction Project’ requested by the Japanese army. However, subsequent to the outbreak of the Pacific War in 1941, the nature of accounting information used was transformed in order for the SSDC to be able to manipulate accounting income to secure an acceptable level of dividends to respond to the demands of shareholders.