Tomo Suzuki is head of the accounting group at Oxford University, and one of the world's leading experts on accounting standards and their implications in practice.

He has conducted pioneering work in areas such as the effects of International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) convergence in different countries and accounting for sustainability.

For details of the IFRS Project click here.

Perhaps the first person to articulate a history of national income accounting, and certainly the first to do so in a philosophical context, Suzuki is an expert in accounting standards, and the philosophical underpinning of accounting practices. The significance of his work is that he describes accounting not as a neutral, objective reflection of reality but rather as an active agenda led behaviour that can be used to reveal, understand and interpret an organisation's underlying objectives, as well as how an organisation, or nation, is performing or wants to perform. As Suzuki points out, there are many different ways of arranging data – account-ing - depending on the conditions an organisation operates in, and its purposes and strategies.

Suzuki's work has guided policy decision making at the highest echelons of government in a number of countries, including both India and Japan. Indeed many governments have expressed interest in his work, including the Chinese government, for example, with which Suzuki has been engaged for a number of years. And many well-known corporations have consulted Suzuki for his opinion on complex issues relating to international accounting standards.

Tomo started his career at Arthur Andersen in Tokyo as a practicing CPA Certified Public Accountant (CPA), where he developed an interest in the relationship between accounting, economics and philosophy. Then, after a brief spell at KPMG in Tokyo, travelled to London to study for a masters in the philosophy of social sciences at the London School of Economics, and finally moved to Oxford University to take a D.Phil. in Management Studies.

Suzuki is a University Reader in Accounting at Saïd Business School and Official Fellow of Hertford College, Oxford. He also serves as Tokunin Professor at Osaka University for Sustainability Management.

Areas of expertise include: 
• Socio-economic accounting
• Accounting for sustainability
• Accounting for nuclear power plants
• Accounting and the political economy in emerging markets
• Financial reporting for different audience
• The socio-economic impact of financial regulations;
• International Financial Reporting Standards.

One of Suzuki's main areas of research interest is the international application of financial standards such as of International Financial Reporting Standards, and in particular their socio-economic impacts.

The socio-economic impacts of standardization of financial regulations, such as IFRS, Audit Standards, GRI, ISO, and Investor Relations (IR)
The implementation of International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) is usually considered in relation to financial efficiency, whereas Suzuki is interested in exploring its broader impacts. So, for example, the businesses and economies which follow a certain type of accounting standards will frame their business and management in a particular way depending on those standards.  In some cases, however, the adoption of standardised financial regulations may have unintended or unwanted consequences.

As the principal investigator of the ten year first phase of the Unexplored Impacts of IFRS on Wider Stakeholder project Suzuki has travelled around the world exploring various unintended, unexpected and unexplored impacts of IFRS on corporate, economic and wider social life.

Related publications

 • Journal article: Suzuki, Tomo & Biondi, Yuri (2007) Socio-economic impacts of international accounting standards: an introduction. Socio-Economic Review Vol. 5 Issue 4. pp. 585-602.  [Abstract]

• Working paper: Suzuki, Tomo. “Politics of International Goodwill: Processes and Consequences of Global Regulation.”

• Journal article: Suzuki, Tomo. (2007a) Accountics: Impacts of Internationally Standardized Accounting on the Japanese Socio-Economy. Accounting Organizations and Society. Vol. 32. No. 3, pp. 263-301. 

• Journal article: Suzuki, Tomo.  (2009) Examining Accounting Research under Globalized Socio-Economic Conditions. Accounting [Kaikei].

• Journal article: Suzuki, Tomo.  (2007d) “Book Review: Developments in the International Harmonization of Accounting, (2004), Edited by Christopher W. Nobes. The New Library of International Accounting series (Series Editor Christopher W. Nobes). Cheltenham: Edward Elgar, 448pp Hardback ISBN 1 84376 097 5 £110.00.” European Accounting Review, Vol. 16, Issue 4, pp. 863-866.

International Accounting Standard (IAS) 41 Agriculture
A specific strand of Suzuki's research on the adoption of IFRS highlights the impact of International Accounting Standard No. 41 (Agriculture) on plantation industries in countries such as Malaysia. As Suzuki points out, application of IAS 41 leads to some unexpected consequences that disadvantage the plantation owners, and potentially the national economies of the countries where the plantations are located.

Suzuki has made recommendations to the Malaysian, Indonesian, and Indian governments to exclude IAS 41, from any IFRS convergence or adoption, and both Indonesia and India decided to carve-out IAS 41 as a result.

India’s roadmap to financial convergence
Suzuki’s research into the socio-economic impacts of International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) fed into India’s road map towards financial convergence, which was announced on in January 2010. Working with the Indian government, Suzuki recommended that, rather than adopting IFRS wholesale, India should consider carefully converging with the international standards, where appropriate, based on wider stakeholder consultations.

As part of this project Suzuki travelled across India, conducting some 200 interviews with various stakeholders including Ministers. The findings of this research were published in a 140-page policy report to the Government of India in 2010, which directly influenced the government's policy decisions regarding IFRS convergence. The Indian government was the first nation to express strong reservations over careless global convergence with IFRS.

Related publications
• Report: Suzuki, Tomo & Jaypal Jain (2010) Socio-Economic Impacts of IFRS on Wider Stakeholders in India.

• Working paper: Suzuki, Tomo (2010). “Politics of IFRS implementation in India” (Report to the Government of India. Also, a journal article version.)

Accounting for nuclear power plants
Another example of how IFRS as fair value accounting can affect our socio-economy can be found in the nuclear power industry. Suzuki started research on accounting for nuclear power stations in 2005, well before the Fukushima nuclear disaster, visiting several nuclear power plants in China, India and Japan. Nuclear waste is difficult to account for in the framework of IFRS, as it can be classified either as an asset or a liability. Its measurement can also be at the mercy of socio-political preferences of the time.

Related publications
• Working paper: Suzuki, Tomo (2010) “Accounting for Nuclear Power Plants in China, India and Japan.”

Pragmatic and implementable framework of accounting for sustainability and environment
Under the current international system, politicians and other stakeholders who care about their domestic welfare and environmental sustainability have no way to measure companies’ performance in these areas. Suzuki is sceptical about the idea of measuring true costs or full costs of corporate activities in relation to environments and sustainability. In order to enhance sustainability management, particularly in emerging economies, a much more pragmatic approach is required. Suzuki has come up with a new framework of Accounting for Sustainability which is now tested by cutting-edge experimental research methods.

Related publications
• Journal article: Suzuki, Tomo (forthcoming). International Comparisons of Environmental Liability Accounting Practices in Australia, China, India, Japan and the UK.     

• Working paper: Suzuki, Tomo (Working Paper/Project) Institutional Design for Sustainability Accounting: A Financial Accounting Perspective.

• Working paper: Kokubu. Katsuhiko & Suzuki, Tomo (Working Paper/Project) “Evolution of Environmental Accounting in Japan”.

Other areas of research include:
The relationship between political economy and selected data in emerging economies such as Brazil, China, India and Russia; Accounting in arts organisations.

Related publications
• Journal article: Suzuki, Tomo, Yan Yan and Bingyi Chen (2007). Accounting for the growth and transformation of Chinese businesses and the Chinese economy: implications for transitional and development economics. Socio-Economic Review. Vol. 5 Issue 4. pp. 665-694. [Abstract]

• Journal article: Suzuki, Tomo. (2007b) A History of Japanese Accounting Reforms as a Microfoundation of the Democratic Socio-Economy: Accountings Part II. Accounting Organizations and Society. Vol. 32 No. 6, pp. 543-575

• Working paper: Suzuki, Tomo and Deng, Joe “History of Financial Accounting in China: Accounting for People”.

• Working paper: Suzuki, Tomo and Jain, Jaypal (Working Paper/Project)  “History of Business Reporting in India: Accounting for People”

• Newspaper article: Suzuki, Tomo (2007) Accounting as a Work of Art, Mint Column, Wall Street Journal.

Other Publications

• Journal article: Suzuki, Tomo. (2003a) The Accounting Figuration of Business Statistics as a Foundation for the Spread of Economic Ideas. Accounting Organizations and Society. Vol. 28. No. 1, pp.65.- 95.

• Journal article: Suzuki, Tomo. (2003b) The Epistemology of Macroeconomic Reality: The Keynesian Revolution from an Accounting Point of View. Accounting Organizations and Society. Vol. 28. No. 5, pp. 471-517.

• Book: Suzuki, Tomo (In progress - Oxford University Press). Accountics: Between Accounting, Economics and Politics.

• Working paper: Suzuki, Tomo (Working Paper/Project) “Philosophy and Politics of Economic Statistics – A Foundation of Socio-economic Governance.” 

Tomo Suzuki teaches Financial Reporting lectures and classes for the MBA, Executive MBA, and MSc in Financial Economics programmes. Some may consider accounting a dull and dry subject, but that is certainly not the case when Suzuki's teaching. Accounting and double-entry bookkeeping classes can be both entertaining and informative, he says. His 2010 Sylvester Award for best teacher and high overall effectiveness scores from the MBAs, suggest that the students agree. Suzuki points to three factors that make his classes particularly well-received: the course is practically useful; it is intellectually demanding, requiring excellent critical thinking skills; and it explores the ethical implications of different types of accounting methods.

Tomo Suzuki teaches:
• Undergraduate Financial Management: Financial Reporting
• MBA and EMBA core course: Financial Reporting
• MSc in Financial Economics (MFE): Financial Reporting
• MSc in Law and Finance: Financial Reporting

MBA/EMBA Financial Reporting (core course) / MFE Financial Reporting
There are two primary objectives for the Financial Reporting course.

1. The first is to build students’ understanding of the subject of accounting. At the heart of accounting is a model for recording and presenting economic information, which is summarised in a balance sheet, income statement and cash flow statement. The starting point in understanding accounting is grasping how this model works.

2. A deeper understanding of accounting requires an appreciation of both the strengths and limitations of accounting data. The second objective, therefore, is to build students’ understanding of financial reporting more broadly, including areas such as financial statement analysis, corporate valuation models, investor relations, audit and governance.

The course enables students to:
- Critically read financial sections of business papers and magazines and understand the “language of business”
- Perform financial analyses of companies, for example for the purposes of financial management and control, or for investment or credit decisions
- Evaluate their own organisation’s reporting policy and strategy.

Suzuki is recruiting DPhil (PhD) students in accounting, and accepting visiting students on a flexible basis. Please send a short statement of interests / research proposal by email.

As well as the impact Suzuki has had via his Unexplored Impacts of IFRS on Wider Stakeholder project, and through teaching the business leaders and business academics of the future, he also engages with organisations and governments on a number of other issues.

In connection with research focusing on Accounting for Sustainability (and Nuclear Power) in China, India and Japan, for example, he has been involved in the Prince of Wales’ Accounting for Sustainability team, the Chinese Ministry of Finance, the International Capital Market Association (ICMA), the Japan Accounting Association’s Special Interest Group, and India’s central government Atomic Research Group.

Academic engagement
In the past Suzuki has organised a number of special sessions at the Society for Advancement of Socio Economics (SASE), internationally the largest community of socio-economists, and guest edited the Socio-Economic Review.
His work on IFRS has taken him to China, India and Japan, and to meetings with Ministry of Finance personnel and corporate affairs officials, as well as with each country’s accounting standards setters and International Accounting Standards Board members.

YB Tan Sri Bernard Dompok, the Malaysian Minister of Plantation Industries and Commodities meets Tomo Suzuki

In addition Suzuki is frequently invited to disseminate his work to a wider audience in person. In 2007, for example, he was invited by the Vice-Minister of the Ministry of Finance in China to present a paper at the International Symposium on International Convergence of Accounting in Emerging and Transition Economies, Beijing. And in 2008 he was asked by representatives of the Japanese government and accounting board to both chair and present at the accounting session at the Japan Securities Association, London.

Other areas of engagement: Oxford alumni in Asia - Suzuki supports Oxford alumni in Asian countries. Send him your ideas to develop our alumni relations; DPhil / PhD students / visiting students - Suzuki is also recruiting DPhil (PhD) students in accounting, and accepting visiting students on a flexible basis. Please send a short statement of interests / research proposal by email.