My name is Katabe.
I originally began my journey far from the corporate world, as a student of literature and philosophy. Through an unexpected turn of events, I became a Certified Public Accountant. In 1989, during the era often described as “Japan as Number One,” I was appointed as the first Thailand-based representative of an audit firm, marking the start of my engagement with international business. After completing my overseas assignment, I declined an international tax partner position in Japan and instead chose to establish the Ariya Group in 1993, driven by a desire to examine and explore the various issues that arise in the course of our work. Since then, I have continued to pursue the truth of the conviction until now.
Since its establishment, the Ariya Accounting Firm Group, managed by Japanese Certified Public Accountants, has grown into an organization comprising more than one hundred Thai professionals, including accountants, lawyers, and other specialists. In addition, with Professor Paijit, who was a widely respected authority in the field, we have been providing legal, tax, audit, and accounting services, primarily to Japanese-affiliated companies operating in Thailand, leveraging their business activities for over three decades with deep local expertise and a strong understanding of Japanese corporate practices.
In particular, we take pride in our outstanding record in Thai tax administration and international taxation. Our client base reflects this strength, comprising leading Japanese corporations, small and medium-sized enterprises, public institutions and government-related organizations, as well as European, American, Singaporean, and Korean companies operating in Thailand. Notably, when the Thai tax authorities introduced the transfer pricing regime, our firm was selected as one of fourteen private-sector expert organizations—including major international accounting and law firms such as Deloitte and Baker McKenzie—to participate as advisors in the formulation and implementation of the system.
We believe that we have earned a certain level of recognition in the Thai accounting community as well.
Around 2005, when Mr. Tatsumi Yamada, then a member of the International Accounting Standards Board (IASB), made his first official visit to Thailand as a liaison country, he held discussions with the Thailand Federation of Accounting Professions (formerly known as the Institute of Certified Accountants and Auditors of Thailand (ICAAT)). On that occasion, our firm was the only accounting practice invited to participate in the exchange of views.
That said, let us set promotion aside for the moment.
Compared with twenty years ago, the number of Japanese accountants and lawyers stationed in Thailand has increased dramatically, giving a strong sense of how times have changed. Nevertheless, I suspect that, even today, distortions born of careless interpretation are running rampant within the closed confines of Japanese-language discourse.
In making effective use of Thailand’s legal and regulatory systems, one essential point should never be overlooked: this is, after all, not our own country. In other words, the true protagonists of Thai system are Thai professionals themselves.
When I observe Japanese professionals—self-described as “experts”—speaking with great confidence about what Thai tax law or accounting rules supposedly are, I cannot help but feel that I am witnessing one of the underlying causes of Japan’s so-called “lost thirty years.” One must ask whether the same assertions could truly be made, unchanged, in front of Thai regulatory officials educated at Ivy League institutions in the United States, even assuming they possess a complete command of the Japanese language. In our view, one of the reasons for the overseas failures of Japanese companies lies in misunderstandings of local frameworks. Put differently, this is reminiscent of Plato’s Allegory of the Cave: Japanese companies are often judging Thailand’s systems based merely on the shadows projected on the cave wall, rather than on the realities that exist beyond it.
The photograph shows a moment from a
YouTube discussion video featuring a dialogue
with Attorney Miki, former President of Aoyama
Gakuin University.
For example, are the following commonly held assertions really true?
- Even if a lawsuit is brought in Thailand, Japanese management almost never prevails.
- Even if a tax refund is claimed, no surcharge interest is paid—and, worse still, a tax audit will result in additional tax assessments exceeding the refund amount.
- The buyout of unused annual leave violates the law.
- Once a mandatory retirement system is introduced, a company must always recognize a retirement benefit obligation.
Accessing accurate and reliable information is never easy. Consider, for example, a situation in which a Thai individual with no knowledge of the Japanese language attempts to open a Thai restaurant in Japan and seeks to enter into a lease agreement for a commercial property in Shinjuku. The range of relevant laws and regulations would be vast—Civil Code, Stamp Duty Act, Food Sanitation Act, Fire Service Act, Entertainment Business Act, Labour Standards Act, and many others. While the amount of information required would be enormous, one can readily imagine how difficult it would be to obtain accurate, properly summarized, and practically usable guidance covering all of those requirements. In such circumstances, would it truly be reasonable to place one’s trust in a Japanese individual or even a fellow Thai national who approaches and says, in broken English, “I know everything—just leave it to me”?
In Thailand, even foreign professionals—including Japanese experts—can ultimately be said to be nothing more than interpreters. Of course, that role of interpretation is by no means an easy one. When one considers whether it is appropriate to translate a Thai “Authorized Director” (กรรมการผู้มีอำนาจ) as a “Representative Director,” it becomes a difficult question. Therefore, while the contributions of foreign professionals are certainly important, the true protagonists are the Thai professionals.
Placing Thai professionals at the core, the objective is to deliver well-founded information— in short, to do good work. We sincerely aspire to continue working in this way.