Rethinking Mrs Watanabe : changes and constraints in the relationship between Japanese women and accounting / finance under the influence of globalisation by Dr Naoko Komori

Japanese women have long held the purse strings when it comes to household finance. The skills and activities of Japanese housewives have been attracting attention in the UK since the late 2000s, when the media dubbed them “kimono traders”. This seminar examines how the role played by Japanese women in accounting and finance is evolving as part of the reconfiguration of accountancy and finance happening under globalisation.

This seminar considers the relationship between Japanese women and accounting/finance: how women’s financial role has been shaped historically; the significance of their role in Japanese business and society; and how their relationship with accounting has changed under the influence of globalisation. It also discusses the difficulties involved in acquiring an accurate understanding and knowledge of Japan from outside the country. 

Dr Naoko Komori was a Japan Foundation Fellow in 2008 and has been Lecturer in Accounting at the University of Sheffield Management School also since 2008, following her return from Japan. She completed her PhD there in 2005 and subsequently worked as a research fellow at the Centre for Analysis of Investment Risk (CAIR) in Manchester Business School. Before moving her academic career to the UK, she worked as an associate professor in the Faculty of Economics at the University of Wakayama in Japan. She also holds an MBA from the University of Kobe in Japan.

Dr Komori´s major research interest is to enhance understanding of the processes of international convergence in accounting and auditing, with specific reference to Japan. She has explored how the relationship between women and accounting has developed in the Japanese historical and social context and has linked this to the growing significance of auditing in Japan under the influence of globalisation. She was awarded a prestigious "High Commendation" in the Mary Parker Follett Award for 2009.

 

Professor Josephine Maltby will be the discussant - she is Professor of Management and Accounting at the University of York and an editor of 'Women and Their Money 100-1950: Essays on women and finance'.