49. Don't Take Japanese Terms at Face Value! A Mystery About "Historical Cost" 取得価額と取得原価の謎

取得価額と取得原価について英語で書きました。
I've written about one of the usual problems for translators using two Japanese terms meaning "historical cost" as an example. Hope you enjoy it!!  

See this post for more about Japanese tax and accounting.

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For historical cost, the Japanese language has the following two terms:

	Japanese terms	In Chinese character	Literally translated as	Meaning In English
A	Shutoku kagaku	取得価額	Acquisition value	Historical cost or original cost
B	Shutoku genka	取得原価	Acquisition cost	Historical cost, original cost, or carrying value

Issues surrounding these two terms are as follows: 

• Japanese Corporate Tax Law Enforcement Order defines the term A but not B. 
• These two Japanese terms themselves do not show any difference in the meaning. 
• Furthermore, some (e.g., E&Y [in Japanese only]) use them interchangeably while others (e.g., KPMG [in Japanese only]) define "A - Depreciation = B."

It's so confusing, so I've concluded as follows:

• A and B both can mean historical cost (or original cost).
• But in some cases, B may mean carrying value. 

This clearly shows how important it is to understand the background information when translating something from Japanese to English. Don't take Japanese terms at face value!! 

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