The Effect of Audit Objectives on Audit Quality Why is There Little Disclosure of Significant Deficiencies in Japanese Internal Control Audits？

Many prior research findings indicate that audit quality differs between the Big 4 and non-Big 4 audit firms using an indicator variable. However, most previous research focuses on only outcome measures, such as audit fees, going concern reports, and non-audit services. This study investigates audit quality differentiation between the Big 4 and non-Big 4 audit firms hypothesis from an audit objective point of view. One of the material objectives of Japanese internal control audit institutions is to facilitate assessment and improvement of internal controls by corporations themselves. The findings of this study indicate that the Big 4 audit firms accomplish this objective better than non-Big 4 audit firms. Consequently, most Big 4 clients do not disclose significant deficiencies （SDs）, implying that they improve the quality of internal controls through internal controls auditing. This paper concludes that Big 4 firms produce a higher audit quality level than non-Big 4 firms, and this quality difference iS related to how an audit objective is interpreted and implemented.

人类前沿科学规划——目的与实施建议

人类前沿科学规划(Human Frontier Science pro-gram)最初的提出是为了对活生物精细复杂的过程开展全球性的、学科间交叉的基础研究。一些科学家主要是日本科学家首先对这一规划进行了讨论。1987年6月,日本在威尼斯高级经济会议上正式提出了关于这一规划的建议,日本的这一行动受到了会议领导人的欢迎。随后,成立了一个可行性研究委员会。