New PwC Japanese firm ready for business

PricewaterhouseCoopers Aarata, the new Japanese accounting firm set up with
the support of the PricewaterhouseCoopers global network, will open for business
on 1 July.

PwC Aarata received confirmation of incorporation and registration from the
Legal Affairs Bureau in Japan as well as permission for the use of the new name
from the Japanese Institute of Certified Public Accountants (JICPA).

The firm has also applied for registration with the Public Company Accounting
Oversight Board (PCAOB) in the United States.

It will continue to working with and provide international support to
ChuoAoyama, its disgraced Japanese network firm, suspended from auditing for two
months.

PwC Aarata is expected to have 80 partners by year end.

Sam DiPiazza CEO PricewaterhouseCoopers International, said PwC faced ‘a
number of significant challenges in Japan’ be he said he was ‘confident that the
strategy it had developed would be ‘the best way of improving audit quality and
serving all of our clients both internationally and in Japan’.