Consistency, value relevance and sufficiency of book for market values in five Japanese conglomerates over the period 1950-2004

Market and accounting data for five Japanese conglomerates, Toyota, Fuji, Sony, Itochu and Sumitomo, are analysed over the period 1950 to 2004. Annual market value is regressed on three accounting and six macroeconomic variables, using a general-to-specific approach to construct simple error correction models for each of the five firms. The results show that in four of the five firms there is evidence of a long-run relationship between market value and the net book value of assets, which can be interpreted, with increasing degrees of strength, as book values being either consistent with, value relevant for, or sufficient for market value.