Cabinet Office Ordinance on Continuing Professional Education Prescribed in Article 28 of Certified Public Accountants Act (Tentative translation)
Pursuant to the provisions of Article 28 of the Certified Public Accountants Act (Act No. 103 of 1948) (including the cases where applied mutatis mutandis pursuant to Article 16-2, paragraph (4) of the same Act) and Article 49-5 of the same Act, the Cabinet Office Ordinance on Continuing Professional Education Prescribed in Article 28 of Certified Public Accountants Act is established as follows:
(Participation in Continuing Professional Education)
Article 1 (1) A certified public accountant (including a registered foreign certified public accountant prescribed in Article 16-2, paragraph (5) of the Certified Public Accountants Act (hereinafter referred to as the "Act"); the same shall apply hereinafter) shall participate in continuing professional education (which means the continuing professional education prescribed in Article 28 of the Act; the same shall apply hereinafter) offered by the Japan Institute of Certified Public Accountants (hereinafter referred to as the "Institute") to acquire 40 credits or more (hereinafter referred to as the "required number of credits" in Article 3) for each business year (which means a period from April 1 to March 31; the same shall apply hereinafter).
(2) With regard to the method of calculation of credits set forth in the preceding paragraph, as a rule, one hour of continuing professional education conducted by way of lecture shall constitute one credit, or otherwise the Institute shall specify such method for each method of continuing professional education.
(Exemption from Continuing Professional Education)
Article 2 (1) A certified public accountant may, if he/she does not or is expected not to engage in the services as a certified public accountant throughout any one business year for any of the following reasons, apply for an exemption from the continuing professional education for that business year to the chairperson of the Japan Institute of Certified Public Accountants (hereinafter referred to as the "chairperson"):
(i) Receiving medical treatment for injury or illness
(ii) Serving as a member of the Diet or a local council
(iii) Working full-time for the national or a local government
(iv) Working full-time for a body other than an audit corporation, or a judicial person or any other body with which he/she has the relationship prescribed in Article 5 of the Ordinance for Enforcement of the Certified Public Accountant Act (Cabinet Office Ordinance No.81 of 2007) which is found to be substantially controlled by an audit corporation
(v) Being a nonresident prescribed in Article 2, paragraph (1), item (v) of the Income Tax Act (Act No. 33 of 1965)
(vi) Any reason similar to the preceding items, for which not engaging in the services as a certified public accountant is reasonable.
(2) A certified public accountant shall, when submitting an application pursuant to the provisions of the preceding paragraph, submit to the chairperson without delay an application for exemption from continuing professional education prepared by using appended Form 1 with a document certifying that any of the reasons listed in the items of the preceding paragraph is applicable.
(3) The chairperson shall, upon receipt of an application set forth in the preceding paragraph, review the application, and when he/she finds that the application pursuant to the provisions of paragraph (1) has grounds, may, upon obtaining the approval from the Commissioner of the Financial Services Agency, exempt the certified public accountant who submitted the application from the continuing professional education to which the application relates.
(4) The chairperson shall, when he/she wishes to obtain the approval set forth in the preceding paragraph, send necessary documents with his/her opinion about the application pursuant to the provisions of paragraph (1) to the Commissioner of the Financial Services Agency.
(5) The Commissioner of the Financial Services Agency shall, when he/she finds that the application pursuant to the provisions of paragraph (1) has grounds, grant the approval set forth in paragraph (3).
(6) A certified public accountant who submitted the application pursuant to the provisions of paragraph (1), when he/she has been exempted from the continuing professional education to which the application relates pursuant to the provisions of paragraph (3), shall not be required to participate in the continuing professional education for the relevant business year.
(Reduction of Required Number of Credits for Continuing Professional Education)
Article 3 (1) A certified public accountant may, when a period during which he/she does not engage in the services as a certified public accountant for any of the reasons listed in the items of paragraph (1) of the preceding Article extends or is expected to extend to a significant portion of any one business year, apply to the chairperson for a reduction of the required number of credits for the continuing professional education for the relevant business year.
(2) A certified public accountant shall, when submitting an application pursuant to the preceding paragraph, submit to the chairperson without delay an application for a reduction of continuing professional education prepared by using appended Form 2 with a document certifying that any of the reasons listed in the items of paragraph (1) of the preceding Article is applicable.
(3) The chairperson shall, upon receipt of an application set forth in the preceding paragraph, review the application, and when he/she finds that the application pursuant to paragraph (1) has grounds, may, upon obtaining the approval from the Commissioner of the Financial Services Agency and in accordance with the standards prescribed in the appended table, reduce the required number of credits for the continuing professional education to which the application relates for the certified public accountant who submitted the application.
(4) The chairperson shall, when he/she wishes to obtain the approval set forth in the preceding paragraph, send necessary documents with his/her opinion about the application pursuant to the provisions of paragraph (1) to the Commissioner of the Financial Services Agency.
(5) The Commissioner of the Financial Services Agency shall, when he/she finds that the application pursuant to the provisions of paragraph (1) has grounds, grant the approval set forth in paragraph (3).
(6) A certified public accountant who submitted the application pursuant to the provisions of paragraph (1), when the required number of credits of the continuing professional education to which the application relates has been reduced pursuant to the provisions of paragraph (3), shall not be required to participate in the portion of continuing professional education for the reduced credit for the relevant business year.
(Collection of Plan and Report on Status of Implementation of Continuing Professional Education)
Article 4 The Commissioner of the Financial Services Agency shall, pursuant to the provisions of Article 46-12, paragraph (1) of the Act, request the Institute to submit a plan and report on the status of implementation of the continuing professional education each six-month period of each business year.
Appended table (Related to Article 3, paragraph (3)
|Period during which a certified public accountant does not engage in the services due to reasons listed in the items of Article 2, paragraph (1)|Number of credits to be reduced||
|A period of or longer than one-eighth of a business year and shorter than one-quarter of a business year|5 credits||
|A period of or longer than one-quarter of a business year and shorter than three-eighth of a business year|10 credits||
|A period of or longer than three-eighths of a business year and shorter than one-half of a business year|15 credits|
|A period of or longer than one-half of a business year and shorter than five-eighths of a business year|20 credits||
|A period of or longer than five-eighths of a business year and shorter than three-quarters of a business year|25 credits|
|A period of or longer than three-quarters of a business year and shorter than seven-eighths of a business year|30 credits||
|A period of or longer than seven-eighths of a business year|35 credits|