Below is a report written by Yasushi Katayama at Probitas International Tax Services on his attendance at the recent BOKS International Annual Global Conference in Toronto. There is a link at the bottom of the post linking to the original piece written in Japanese on the Probitas website.

At the end of September, I went on a business trip to Toronto, Canada.

The purpose of the business trip was to attend the third annual meeting of BOKS International, an international network of accounting firms, of which we, Provitus Tax & Consulting, are a member.

What is BOKS international?
BOKS International is an international network of accounting firms. As of October 2022, the alliance operates in 59 countries and has 87 members. and is ranked 14th in the IAB global rankings. It does not currently have a significant presence in Japan, but development here is an ongoing focus.

For more information on the scale, see the reports published by the IAB here. 

We decided to join for the following reasons:

  • According to IAB (International Accounting Bulletin) survey data, it is small in size but steadily growing every year.
  • Worldwide presence.
  • We have no offices in Japan.

Report on the Annual General Meeting
There were about 60 participants from around the world. All are either lawyers or accountants. Only two Asians were present, me and one from Singapore. Most of the participants are from Europe and the US.

I am not good at English, so I was nervous the day before – the same day Aaron Judge of the Yankees hit his historic 61st home run in Toronto!

Day One
The first day was heavily focused on Networking.

At any rate, I did my best to show that I was from Japan. In general, everyone was very welcoming. However, we asked them, “Would you like to invest in Japan?” They all replied that they knew very little about Japan. Rather, they said, “Japan is expensive, isn’t it?”. The image was the same as in the past.

The participants were lawyers, accountants and other people of high intellectual level, but I was disappointed that they only had that level of an impression of Japan…”

In the evening, there was a reception party. I found out there that everyone seemed to love Japan. Comments such as “I’ve never been to Japan, but I’d love to go there!” “We hope the next AGM will be in Tokyo!”

The foreigners drank so much that they were crushed in the end (laughs).

Day Two
Although I did not understand everything, it is a common issue worldwide that accountancy firms are under-resourced. The most exciting topic there was mergers and acquisitions of accounting firms.

I had heard about it here and there in Japan, and I am the one with the accounting firm M&A experience, but I thought it was still more advanced overseas.

The third day was a tour of Niagara Falls, and I went with some people to watch a Boston Red Sox game at the Rogers Centre, home of the Toronto Blue Jays.

Impressions
BOKS International is still small and ranked approximately 14th worldwide. But there are advantages to being small. The environment is very open, and you can immediately access the people you want to access.

Although I am a newcomer, I was able to talk to all the key members and appeal to them about Japan. I received a really warm welcome.

The participants at BOKS International are generally young, probably in their 40s on average. It is expected to grow in the future, and I was delighted to be a part of it.

As Provitus Tax Corporation, we have created a system that enables us to support Japanese companies expanding overseas and foreign companies developing in Japan, which has dramatically expanded the scope of our work.

Toronto
Toronto is Canada’s largest city on Lake Ontario. On the other side of the lake is the state of New York, which is Canadian but almost American.

The city has developed through finance, and the central area is a skyscraper. The surrounding area was also in a rush of condominium construction.

It has a lot of greenery, you can walk around at night, etc., and it is not unsafe and seems to be an excellent place to live. It may not be very well known in Japan, but it is a lovely city to visit for a week or so.

There are direct flights from Narita Airport daily, so access is good (both round-trip flights were total, regardless of Covid).

The article was originally published on 18 October 2022. You can read the Japanese version here.