В Японии лишь 15,5% компаний завершили подготовку к новым стандартам учета аренды

KEY POINTS Sansan survey shows only 15.5% of affected companies complete new lease accounting preparations Lease eligibility judgment ranks as the top challenge, while only 12.5% fully identify relevant contracts Mandatory application starts from fiscal years beginning on or after April 2027, with 65.1% lacking budget visibility Sansan's contract management service Contract One released a survey on September 8 showing that many Japanese companies subject to new lease accounting standards have yet to complete preparations, with only 12.5% saying they have fully identified contracts that could fall within the scope of the rules. The survey covered 451 respondents in Japan working in accounting, finance, legal, general affairs, purchasing and corporate planning at companies that need to comply with the new standard and are aware of it. The nationwide internet survey was conducted from June 26 to July 2. Japan's new lease accounting standard will be mandatorily applied in stages to listed companies and certain other entities for fiscal years beginning on or after April 2027. Under the new rules, lessees are in principle required to identify all transactions that qualify as leases and recognize them on the balance sheet, prompting affected companies to review their accounting treatment of lease transactions. Only 15.5% of respondents said their companies had completed preparations for the new standard, while 29.5% said they were moving ahead with specific measures and 26.2% said they were still considering policies, identifying leases and assessing impacts. In total, 55.7% were either finished or in progress, while 10.9% said they planned to start gathering information or considering their response. Among 321 companies that had completed or were advancing preparations, 57.9% said they were consulting audit firms or outside specialists, the most common step taken. Another 45.8% were gathering information through seminars or training, 42.4% were identifying and checking contracts, and 30.8% were considering or implementing systems. The most commonly cited challenge was determining which contracts qualify as leases, selected by 44.5% of respondents. That was followed by accounting treatment under the new standard at 36.1% and collecting contracts at 25.2%. By function, 51.3% of respondents in accounting, finance and related departments cited lease determination as a challenge, compared with 33.3% in legal. On contract visibility, 12.5% said their companies had identified all contracts that could potentially qualify as leases. A further 58.9% said they had identified roughly 80% or more, while 17.4% said they had grasped only about half. Another 8.4% said they had identified very few such contracts and 2.8% said they had identified none. The survey also pointed to budget constraints. Some 65.1% said they had no clear prospect yet for a response budget, while 34.9% said a budget had been secured or was under consideration. Among the 112 companies in that latter group, 34.8% expected spending of at least 10 million yen ($64,935). Exchange rate used for dollar conversion: USD/JPY 154. Contract One offers a function that uses AI to read contract clauses and support lease classification work. Sansan positioned the survey as a measure of corporate readiness and implementation challenges ahead of the new standard's rollout.