The Japanese Stock Market: Pricing Systems and Accounting Information

This volume brings together professors of finance and accounting from Japanese universities to examine the Japanese stock market in terms of its pricing and accounting systems. The papers report the results of empirical research into the Japanese stock market within the framework of new theories of finance. Having gathered data from the late 1970s through 1984, the authors analyze the market’s behaviour and the applicability of two major theoretical pricing models - the capital asset pricing model and the efficient market hypothesis - to that market. Chapter one provides background statistical evidence on the behaviour of monthly returns on Tokyo Stock Exchange common stocks. Chapter two discusses an empirical test of the capital asset pricing model. Chapter three examines evidence on the price performance of unseasoned new issues. The authors also examine the Japanese accounting disclosure system - chapter four deals empirically with the information content of the annual accounting announcements and related market efficiency. The next chapter presents empirical evidence on the relationship between unsystematic returns and earnings forecast errors. Next, empirical research into the usefulness to investors of the disclosure system is examined. Finally, Chapter seven presents several interesting questions and topics for future research on the Japanese market.